The Bright Clear Line
by Bird of Poetry
Summary: There is more than one way out of the woods. The future of the war against the Yeerk Empire now depends on whether Marco can see which path to take.
1. Pawn Discovery

"Pawns have the potential to unmask attacks by other pieces in every direction; and because they are worth so little they easily can create bothersome threats, making them marvelous at unveiling discovered attacks."

* * *

 **Aftran**

It might be a sign of my twisted sense of humor that one of my drops was at the abandoned construction site where Cassie and her human friends met Elfangor that fateful night.

Seriously, though, it was a good drop-off spot for Peace Movement Yeerks with homeless and/or criminal hosts. It's a place where they blend in. It was strange going there, though, with Cassie's memories of the night Elfangor died vivid in my mind. When I went there, I tried to reconcile the dark, terrifying hellscape of Cassie's memories with the broken husks of buildings I saw laid bare to the morning sunlight.

The drop was a deep crack in one of the crumbling plaster walls. I reached in. There was a tightly rolled scrap of paper. I unrolled it. The message was written in Galard, a habit I encouraged in all my spies who knew the language. Any human who somehow found one of the resistance's notes couldn't then tell all their friends about the strange message they found talking about aliens.

The note read:

 _Destination of V3's strike force confirmed. 22nd_ _floor of Sutherland Tower, 2490 Morrison St. Date of strike moved up 3 days. Target still unknown. Conjecture: fulfillment of kill order from Council13. - Napol_

Moved up three days. That meant today. If Visser Three had an enemy he was trying to eliminate, they might be a potential ally to the Peace Movement or the Animorphs. This was too dangerous a situation for me and Bachu to get involved in, but the Animorphs could go after school. If the target wasn't already dead by then.

 _The school?_ Bachu said.

 _The school,_ I agreed.

Bachu parked down the street from the school, and walked there under the cover of a hologram. It was easy to slip in through an open window on the first floor. It was one of Tidwell's free periods, fortunately, so I went straight to his office and rapped softly on his desk, right next to where the tank holding Kalysico sat.

The fish dæmon bonked her head against the side of her tank, and Tidwell looked up with a start. "It always scares me when you do that," he hissed.

"I've got intel on that strike force Visser Three's been putting together for the last week," I whispered. "The hit was moved to today. And I know where. Permission to tell the Andalites?"

Tidwell's face hardened in that way I associated with Illim: brow stern, mouth pulled in. "The target could be a Peace Movement ally. Do you trust the Andalites to recognize the value of a sympathetic Yeerk?"

"Not all of them. But enough of them to convince the rest. Probably. Nothing is certain. But none of our people can protect an ally against an entire strike force. Only the Andalites can. They're a risky choice, but they're the only ones strong enough."

"Tell them," said Tidwell, face softer. "I trust Noorlin to do what's right. Tell us as soon as you know how it went."

I rapped the table again in acknowledgment and left. Illim and Tidwell must have imagined that I would go back to the national forest and talk to the Andalites he must have supposed were living there. But all I had to do was consult Bachu's encyclopedic knowledge of the Animorphs' class schedules, walk over to Jake's math classroom, and slip in the door when a student left to use the bathroom. I moved down the aisle between the desks carefully, stepping over the dæmons sitting on the tiled floor.

Merlyse was perched on the front edge of Jake's desk as a gyrfalcon, white feathers barred with black. I crouched down to her level and whispered, "Ask to be excused."

All of Merlyse's feathers puffed out at once. She mantled her wings and stared. She didn't see anything, of course, not even with a raptor's eyes. "Stay calm," I whispered. "Meet me in the boys' bathroom." Finally, Merlyse caught on and tried to act like everything was normal. Jake got permission to go to the bathroom – barbaric, that, needing permission to perform basic bodily functions – and I followed him out silently, unseen.

Bachu created a hologram around us in the bathroom. Merlyse perched on the windowsill and watched the door. Jake looked around and bit his lip. "This feels wrong."

"I don't think a sexless android would be welcome in either of your gendered bathrooms," Bachu said, "so I don't see what difference it makes."

"I guess you're right," Jake said. "What's going on? You're Aftran and Bachu, right?"

"How did you know?" I asked. The Chee's chrome bodies all look the same to human eyes.

"The Chee don't do any of that invisible ninja stuff on their own," said Jake. "That was all you, Aftran."

"True," I acknowledged. "I'm here with a tip from my spies in the Peace Movement. Visser Three has assembled a strike force against an unknown target. It's happening this afternoon at the big office building on Morrison St. My source suspects it's to fulfill a kill order from the Council of Thirteen. An enemy of the Yeerk Empire, almost certainly among our own ranks. We think the target may be a saboteur or dissenter whose goals align with ours."

"You want us to save the target from Visser Three," Jake said. His expression was guarded, his dæmon's eyes still fixed on the bathroom door, even though no one would see us even if they did come in.

"The enemy of your enemy is your friend," I said. "Or could be, anyway. And one more thing. I want to be there."

"You want to be there?" Even Merlyse spared me a surprised look. "You can't fight."

"So I'll do my invisible ninja stuff and watch."

"You don't trust us to keep the target safe."

"Can you blame me?"

"We might have to let them die even if they are a potential ally."

"I understand that."

"And if that's what we end up doing, there's nothing you can do about it."

"I know. That's not the point. I want to see what you do. And I want to be available as a Peace Movement contact if the target needs proof of our intentions."

"And your Chee is okay with this? Standing by and watching if things get violent?"

"That's between the two of us."

I checked in with Bachu. _Are you okay with this?_

 _I've seen battles before. It's not pleasant. But I can see how much you want this._

"All right," said Jake. "But stay invisible and out of the way unless I tell you. We'll go after school."

It was probably the best I would get from him. "Keep me informed. And good luck." I dissolved the hologram and left the school invisibly, hoping I had made the right choice.

* * *

 **Marco**

«Everything looks normal,» I said, flying another circuit around the twenty-second floor of Sutherland Tower. My osprey eyes were good at seeing through glass, and it was office drones as far as the eye could see.

«It would be a simple hologram to maintain,» Ax said. «Well within the Yeerks' capabilities.»

«So we have to get inside to see what's going on?» Jake asked him.

Ax hesitated. «Yes. Unless… the Chee may be able to see through such holograms.»

«Let's ask Delia,» said Jake. The rest of the Animorphs were in seagull morph and could land right by the service entrance where Delia was hanging out, invisible. Ospreys don't blend in as well, so I just swooped a little bit lower to stay in thought-speak range.

«We think the target's using a hologram as a disguise,» Cassie explained to Delia. «Would you be able to see through it?»

I wasn't inside Delia's privacy hologram, so I didn't hear her answer. But I heard Jake say, «Okay. So you disguise yourself as a delivery guy or a janitor or something and we ride with you as flies. You look through keyholes on the twenty-second floor until you see which one has the hologram, then we go in.»

Tobias guided us to a nearby alleyway, and Delia threw up a hologram to cover us as we demorphed and morphed to flies, spacing ourselves out to make room for Abineng.

«You know, Jake,» I said to him privately. «I'm starting to wonder why we don't bring Chee on missions more often. They can't fight, but they can do all kinds of useful stuff.» It was a relief not to have to worry about someone wandering into the alley and seeing us mid-morph.

«There's lots of places they can't go.»

«Yeah. But think about what they _can_ do.»

«You're right. I don't think all of them would want to do this kind of thing. But obviously some of them do.»

Delia became a delivery guy with a dolly stacked with boxes, a bullmastiff dæmon at her side. _Those Chee sure love their dogs,_ Dia commented. As far as I could tell with my fly eyes, no one even gave her a second glance as she walked into Sutherland Tower and took the elevator up to the twenty-second floor.

She walked quietly along, stopping sometimes to look through the cracks at doorframes. I never saw anything weird, but finally she said, "This is the one."

«What do you see in there?» asked Jake.

"There's a portable Yeerk pool, and – " Her voice changed, suddenly, coming out fast and hard like bullets. "And there's a woman next to it. Her head is clamped to the side. She has brown skin and black hair. Her dæmon is an emperor penguin."

 _Mom_. My mother was in there. Her Yeerk was in the pool. Right now, this very moment, she was free. «How do we get in?» I said. «We have to hurry! Before Visser One reinfests her!»

«Marco. We cannot,» said Ax. «The neck clamp will be connected to a brain-wave interface inside the pool.»

«We have to do _something_!» I seethed.

«We do not have to do anything,» said Ax coldly. «Visser Three is sending a strike force after her. If we simply wait, he will remove her for us.»

If we weren't both flies right now, I seriously might have tried to hit him.

«If the Council of Thirteen wants her dead,» said Jake, «she must have a good reason for being here. We need to find out what it is. We're going in. Delia?»

"I see another door, maybe to an in-suite bathroom," Delia said. "You can demorph in there."

«Is that an air vent? I feel a breeze coming from above,» said Tobias.

"Yes," said Delia.

«Wait out here,» Jake told her. «If I tell you to run, _run._ »

We crawled through the grate into the air vent and flew to the other end. Before we came out on the other side, Jake told me, «Marco, listen to me. You can't show yourself to her. I know it's hard. But you can't. Once Visser One reinfests her, she'll know everything your mom saw.»

«I get it,» I said. «I know.»

We came out on the other side.

She was fragmented, shattered, pieces of her pained face and clenched fists scattered everywhere in my fly vision. Mercurio nuzzled her cheek with the side of his face, the tiny soft feathers there. Touching her just the way she needed him, for the few moments he was allowed. For a blinding second, all Diamanta could think about was flying over and landing on his beak.

«Ax, start demorphing now,» Jake said. «We'll be in the bathroom.»

 _Follow Jake,_ I told Dia. _We have to follow Jake. Get out of here._ It felt like I was flying through thick sludge every second I flew away from her. But we made it.

«Rachel, hold off,» Merlyse told her. «There's no room for Abineng in here.»

We started demorphing. Outside, Ax said, «There's a surveillance device in here. She's recording images of free Hork-Bajir. Visser One must have found the colony.»

«So that's what she's up to,» Tobias said darkly. «And if Visser Three's people come here to kill her, they'll know about it too.»

As I became more and more human, the panic the fly morph had kept away came trickling in. I tried to dam it up. _Hork-Bajir,_ Diamanta was saying. _Visser One. Visser Three. A power struggle. There's a connection – a way out –_

The last of my exoskeleton melted away, Dia appeared in a scaly coil in my lap, and the terror came in, an unstoppable flood of icy fear.

Everything was too close together. I had to escape, but my body wouldn't move. My hands clutched at Dia, squeezing her so hard it hurt. My heart pounded so hard I wondered if my ribs might break open. All I could hear was that _thump thump thump_ and maybe in the background someone was talking but I wasn't listening. I curled around Dia and covered my face so I wouldn't have to watch the walls close in around me.

Somewhere far away, on the surface of me, there was a hand on my shoulder. Slowly, I came back up. "Marco." It was Jake. "Marco, what happened? Are you okay?"

 _Oh God,_ said Dia. _Oh no. We just had a panic attack in front of everyone._

 _Maybe I can tell him it's a seizure,_ I thought.

 _God, no, that's even worse. Just tell him about the meds. Tell him it won't happen again,_ Dia urged me.

"I'm fine," I whispered. All around me, the other Animorphs were heading toward battle morph. I should, too. I pictured the gorilla in my mind. Black fur sprouted on my arms.

"Wait," Jake said, squeezing my shoulder. "That was not fine. Marco, tell me."

I looked around. Everyone was going to hear this. My fault. If I'd just told Jake earlier, I could have done it in private. Now I had to do this the hard way. "Luis says it's post-traumatic stress. Because of David. Usually it happens at home or school. Luis gives me meds that stop it. I have it under control."

Jake pulled on my shoulder, so I twisted around to face him. "Marco. You could have told me."

I looked away. "I know."

That was when the room started to shake. No time for this conversation. I focused back on the morph. My face bulged outward. Diamanta vanished.

BAM! «They're breaking down the door,» Ax said from outside. «Hopefully the Chee has retreated to safety. We must go.»

«No,» I said. «We can't just go. Jake, this is an opportunity. Don't you see? Both Visser Three and Visser One want the Hork-Bajir. We can use that.»

«You have a way to set them up?» Jake said.

«Yes.»

«Marco, you just – »

«I have post-traumatic stress, not permanent brain damage! I have a plan. Do you trust me?»

Tiger stripes appeared on Jake's face. "Okay. Yeah. I trust you. Let's stop Visser Three's guys."

"This is insane," Rachel hissed. "Marco, you can't save her."

«I know,» I said. Outside, I could hear a Hork-Bajir cry out. I opened the door and let out Cassie and Tobias, already morphed. It was time to stop the Controllers here to kill my mom.

The battle was over fast. Visser Three's troops were expecting one woman with a Dracon beam, not the whole team of Andalite bandits. Soon we had all the Hork-Bajir down. When it was over, Ax had my mother up against a wall, his tail blade at her throat.

I took a moment to just breathe.

«Marco?» said Jake. «What's the play?»

«We find out what she wants,» I said. «But I can already guess. She wants to discredit Visser Three. She'll say it's his fault all these Hork-Bajir got loose. She wants solid proof so she can show that Council that he's the one they should get rid of, not her.»

«Fine. But you don't do the talking, Marco.» Jake directed his thought-speak to Visser One. «What are you doing on Earth, Visser?»

She laughed, her throat bobbing dangerously against Ax's tail blade. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

It took a little while to get her to the point, but it was just like I'd guessed: she wanted us to sell out the Hork-Bajir so she could discredit Visser Three. Well, let her think we'd do that.

«Tell her she has a deal,» I said.

«Marco,» Jake said to me privately. «This is your mom. If this goes south, she's going to end up dead. Can you live with that?»

«If my plan goes right, she'll end up dead. Jake, you know my mom. You know she would give her life to win this. If this goes right, we nail two Vissers and protect the free Hork-Bajir. If my mom has to die, I say Visser Three goes with her.»

I said all of that, but it wasn't really what I was thinking. They were words that would convince Jake to listen. We didn't have to kill her now. We could kill her at a different place, a different time, exactly where and when I chose. My panic attacks hadn't ruined me. I could see the big picture. I had it under control.

 _And she'll be alive a little longer,_ Dia thought. _We don't have to kill her just yet._

«Ax?» said Jake. «Do it.»

"Contact me when you're ready," Visser One said.

«How?» said Ax.

Visser One smiled then, and it was my mother's smile: sharp and knowing. But at the same time, it wasn't, because Mercurio sat stock still, when he was always such a goofball. "I have email."

It was a Hotmail address. My mom always said their interface was clunky.

Then she and Mercurio studied us all, carefully, her brown eyes and his beady black sweeping over each of us. "One of you does almost all the talking. The rest of you all stay in morph. Visser Three is a fool. He has overlooked something strange about your group of rebels. He is missing something. But don't worry. When I am returned to power, I will figure it out."

Tobias, perched by the window, said, «I see helicopters coming. We have to clear out.»

We left Visser One behind in the bloody wreck of the office. Out in the hallway, Cassie said, «Aftran? Are you there?»

"Yes. The building's been evacuated. Go on up to the roof. I'll cover you."

We walked all the way up to the roof, demorphing as we went. When we finally got up there, panting, the sound of choppers over our heads, Tobias (who had ridden on Ax up the stairs) said, «Well, we just agreed to betray Toby, Jara, Ket, and all the free Hork-Bajir to Visser One. Will someone please explain to me the plan?»

"Are you insane, Marco?" Rachel exploded. "That's your mom you're setting up!"

"No. I'm setting up Visser One."

"And you're okay with this, Jake?" Rachel rounded on him, but Abineng kept watching me as if I might go off at any second. "He had a freak-out in the bathroom when he saw his mom. He can't handle this. He has to sit this one out."

"I've been handling this for months," I said, while Dia reared up on my shoulder as a cobra, hood spread and hissing at Abineng. "None of you even noticed."

"What happens if you have one of those again?" Jake asked me, calmly. Merlyse was a jackal, sitting on her haunches and swishing her tail slowly back and forth.

"It doesn't happen when I'm in morph. I'm not going to demorph if the coast isn't clear. I'll be fine."

"Does Luis think so?"

"Yeah. You can ask him. He says it's a manageable condition."

"Okay," said Jake. "Tell us the plan."

I felt Diamanta loosen her coils around my arm and settle down. "We lure Visser One out to some place that seems plausible for the Hork-Bajir colony. I was thinking one of those empty forested islands off the coast. We let Visser Three's people tail Visser One and figure out where she's going. They both go to the island and race to get to the "colony" first. We have a Chee there, ready to throw up a hologram of the Hork-Bajir colony, making it look destroyed when they bomb it out or whatever. Visser One's people and Visser Three's have a shootout at the OK Corral. We take out whoever's left standing. The Hork-Bajir end up much safer, and the Yeerks end up leaderless."

Rachel, Tobias, and Ax all looked kind of far away. I knew what they were thinking. They were imagining themselves in my place, asking themselves if they could do it. I avoided looking at Cassie and Loren. I kept my eyes on Jake. Yeah, I'd screwed up when I decided not to tell him about the panic attacks. But I looked into Jake's steady gaze, and the way Merlyse's ears drooped, just a little, and I knew he still trusted me. He knew I'd seen my way through to the answer. And he knew I wouldn't change my mind, now that I'd seen it.

"Okay," he said.

"So we do it?"

"Yeah. You call the plays, Marco."

"She's your mother!" Cassie burst out, and Quincy took off from her shoulder, flying around in tilting spirals. "We're all just going to let him do this to his _mother_? He already has PTSD. We can't let him do this to himself!"

Merlyse became a screech owl and caught up with Quincy midair, talking to him quietly. Dia watched them. Meanwhile, I turned to Delia. "Can you do this? Make a hologram of the whole colony and make the Yeerks think they've destroyed it?"

"If I understand your plan correctly," Delia said, "this is going to be part of a battle, isn't it?"

"Yeah," I said. "But making the hologram won't hurt anyone. It'll save the Hork-Bajir."

"Still," said Delia. She was quiet a moment. Then she said, "It won't be easy for me. Using a hologram as part of a battle. Even if it doesn't hurt anyone directly. It'll… come up against the bounds of my programming."

Dia whispered in my ear, "She means it'll hurt."

"But Aftran says the destruction of these Vissers may save her people," Delia finished. "So I'll do it."

«Do you need me for your plan right now?» Tobias said. «I need to fly to the valley and tell Toby her people are in danger.»

"Go ahead," I said. "If a few of her people are up for it, we could use them as part of the plan."

«I'll let her know.» Tobias flew off.

Quincy had landed back on Cassie's shoulder, and Merlyse on Jake's. I turned to Cassie. "Do you know an animal that's really steady on its feet? Rock-climbing, that kind of thing?"

I waited. Was Cassie going to go along with this or not? The pity in her eyes when she looked at me was scalding. "Mountain goat," she said slowly. "They have them at the Gardens."

"We need those morphs," I said. "Let's get wings and go."

* * *

After we left the Gardens with everything except my dignity intact, Loren said to me privately, «Can I speak with you alone, Marco?»

Loren hadn't said a single thing all day, at least not that I'd heard. And we'd never spoken one-on-one before. Thinking about it made me itch inside.

 _She's the only adult you can talk to about this,_ Dia said. _Maybe you should hear her out._

 _She's going to try to talk me out of this, Dia._

 _We both know she won't,_ said Dia, _so let her. Better now than tomorrow._

«Fine,» I said. «Right now?»

«Come to my house. We'll demorph, and I'll make you some tea or something.»

«You don't have to – »

«I want to. Come on.»

Everyone else broke off to go home, and I followed Loren to hers. I'd been there before, when she had been a strange blind lady who somehow knew an Andalite, who we all took turns spying on. But I'd never actually gone inside. It felt like stepping onto the set of a familiar TV show. Loren put on a plain white bathrobe over her morphing suit and offered me something to drink. It seemed like she wasn't going to leave me alone until I picked something, so I asked for cocoa. She made some in the microwave and served it to me on the kitchen table. Dia lay coiled in my lap as a rattlesnake, gray with a brown diamond pattern, and reared up so she could look over the table at Loren, sitting with Jaxom in her own lap. I drank the cocoa and waited for her to say something. When she finally did, it was straight to the point.

"Don't give up on your mother, Marco. Please."

"This isn't about giving up on her. This is about buying as much with her life as we can afford."

"There has to be another way. She doesn't have to die. Jake fights this war because he thinks he can save his brother. Don't you think you can save her? Don't you think we'll do everything we can to help?"

"Tom's Yeerk is a footsoldier," I said. "My mother is host to one of the most powerful Yeerks in the Empire. Are you saying we should catch her? Try to starve the Visser out? We'd probably have a dozen Bug fighters' worth of her troops after us. At least. She was awfully calm for someone claiming to work alone."

"There _has_ to be a way." Loren leaned forward. "Talk to Jake. Come up with a different plan. Don't do this. Marco, you need your mother. I know you do. Just like Tobias needs me."

Dia bared her fangs. "You have no idea what I need."

"Yes, I do," said Jaxom. "You need something to fight for. What will you have left, once you do this?"

Loren looked at me, her arms wrapped around her dæmon. "What are you trying to do?"

"You don't see things the way I do, Loren," I said. Dia slithered up onto the table, looking down at Jaxom. "You haven't been fighting this war as long as I have. I see patterns. More and more, as this war goes on. It's like chess pieces. Us, the Vissers, Aftran's Peace Movement, the Andalites, the Council of Thirteen, the Chee, the Ellimist, Crayak, all of it. I see Visser One's chess piece on the board, and I look at all the moves. There's no way to win where she doesn't die, and my mom with her. This plan? This is the way she dies that helps our side the most."

"So you're sacrificing her. Your mother. Like a pawn."

I coiled Dia's tail around my wrist. "Tell me. If it was you who was captured, and Tobias had to face off against you to win this war. What would you tell him, if you could? That your death would ruin him? That he would never move on? That he was sacrificing you like a pawn?" Dia put her face very close to Jaxom's. "Or would you tell him that you forgive him, because he was doing it to make sure no one else would ever have to be a slave like you?"

Jaxom flinched away from Dia. Loren said, "No one should ever have to make that kind of decision about their own parent. This can't be on you, Marco."

"Seven of us," I said. "That's all we've got. Jake and I are the only people who can think like this. There are pieces sacrificed in every game of chess, and the two of us can see which ones we have to trade away. Tobias will never have to make this call, because he can't."

"You're not alone," Loren said. "You have Jake."

"Yeah. I know I do. And he sees how the plan can work, better than anybody. And after this is over? He'll be there to pick up the pieces. I'm counting on him."

"Marco," Loren said. Her eyes were wet, and she was holding tight to Jaxom. "Please call off this plan. Please."

I reeled Dia in. We both studied her and Jaxom, as if we were spies on her windowsill again, watching them through the glass. "You're afraid of me. Aren't you." I curled Dia around my other wrist. I knew what I must look like, my blank face, Dia's pale unblinking eyes. "Yes, Loren. You're right. If I can do this to my mom, I can do it to anyone. If I had a plan to win this war where you or Tobias or Ax had to die, I could do it. It's a war, Loren. That's the whole point. We hurt the innocent to stop the evil. It's the only way."

Loren's tears overflowed her eyes. For a moment, I felt satisfied. Triumphant, even. It was what she deserved for trying to talk me out of this. Then I just felt cold inside. Empty. I lifted Dia to my face. "Why did we come here again?"

Dia twisted around to face Loren. "Are you coming tomorrow? You can back out. We can do this without you."

Loren did nothing to stop or wipe away the tears crawling down her face. "Jake ordered me to go," she whispered.

"I'm sorry," I said. If it were up to me, I would have let her sit this out.

"Not as sorry as I am," she said.

"Thanks for the cocoa," I said. I morphed to owl and sailed out the window, flying home to my dad, who had no idea what I was planning to do.


	2. En Passant

PART ONE

"The last rule about pawns is called "en passant," which is French for "in passing." If a pawn moves out two squares on its first move, and by doing so lands to the side of an opponent's pawn (effectively jumping past the other pawn's ability to capture it), that other pawn has the option of capturing the first pawn as it passes by. This special move must be done immediately after the first pawn has moved past, otherwise the option to capture it is no longer available."

* * *

 **Toby**

"Do you think his plan will work?" I asked Tobias. My hand-picked team of warriors was gathering, making ready to leave the valley.

«I don't know if he'll really be able to kill both Vissers,» Tobias said. «Especially since…»

"Of course," I said. "I don't care how bloodthirsty Marco imagines himself to be. No one can easily kill his mother. I know my mother would want me to end it, if she were taken again, but I would ask someone else to do it. I know myself well enough for that."

Tobias bobbed his head to acknowledge the point. «But even if we can't kill either of the Vissers, this will make you safer in the long term. The Yeerks will think they've destroyed you. They'll stop looking for you.»

"Always thinking of my people," I said. "I appreciate that."

«Of course,» Tobias said. «Do you think your people will be able to blend in with Visser Three's?»

"I chose people who have worked closely with a Visser or sub-Visser before, so they know how to behave, but won't be recognized as escapees. Though they'll be cutting each other's faces and chests, to make themselves less recognizable."

«I see.» Tobias' voice was neutral, but somehow I knew what I said had unsettled him. Of course, he couldn't heal the way my people can, so he would have a different attitude toward deliberately self-inflicting wounds. «You could be at the island waiting for them if you got a dolphin morph.»

The idea appealed. I could get to know the terrain before my people arrived. "How am I supposed to acquire a dolphin in my natural form?"

«I managed to acquire a dolphin in my natural form. Don't worry, I'll show you.»

I checked with my lieutenants to make sure they remembered how to get to the city and where to hide out until morning. Then I morphed and flew with Tobias to the Gardens.

The Gardens is a two-sided park. On one side, humans subject themselves deliberately to terrifying experiences. On the other, they expose themselves to animals they've nearly exterminated, contained in controlled environments. It's a perverse sort of place that only humans would dream up. It was night, so there was no one there who I could see.

«Here's the dolphin tank,» Tobias said, circling downward. The tank was contemptibly small for the sleek gray shapes sleeping at its surface. Tobias kept watch while I demorphed next to the tank. He asked me, «Can you swim?»

"No," I said. "But I can hold on to the side." I climbed over the wall of the tank and held on to the top edge. The splash when I hit the water woke the dolphins. Unlike the animals in the valley, though, they weren't afraid of me. They came over to check me out. I cautiously reached out and touched one of their long gray noses. The dolphin went still as I focused on all the coiled power in its body. The other dolphins kept circling, tilting to look at me with one eye or the other. When I was done acquiring the dolphin, I hauled myself over the wall of the tank and landed on the other side cool and dripping.

«You could stay the night in my meadow,» Tobias said.

"I would like that. I have never had the chance to see Ax's scoop." I morphed owl and flew out to the woods in silence. I feared for my people, as I do every time we go out on a mission together. But they had the right to take part in the Animorphs' plan to defend us, as much as I did. I would get to the island early, learn the lay of the land, and guide my people to make whatever difference we could.

 **Marco**

My mother is never as much at home as she is on a boat. She strides across the deck as easily as if she were on land, and knows every little movement she has to make to guide the boat through wind or currents. Even Mercurio's waddle is somehow more graceful on a boat than on land.

Of course, Visser One was on a motorboat, not a sailboat like the one my mother had, and with my cockroach eyes I couldn't see Mercurio at all. But she still drove the boat like it was an extension of her body. I wondered if my mom and Mercurio were able to enjoy this trip at all. She must not have been on the water since Royan Island.

 _Don't wonder about her_ , Diamanta said. _Focus._

I took stock. Tobias, Loren, and Ax had gone to the island early in dolphin morph with Toby, so the three of them would already be there, along with Aftran and Delia. Rachel, Jake, and Cassie were cockroaches on the boat with me. Visser Three's people had followed Visser One through the boating supply store and the rental at the marina, so they'd be following us to the island pretty soon, by boat or by cloaked Bug fighter. Hopefully at least one boat, so Toby's people could get on board with the real Controllers.

I hoped Jake was ready to do his part. Ready to send her over the cliff. Because there was no way out now. She'd figured out that "David" wasn't the only human child in our group. Dia whispered, distantly, coldly: _It's creepy as hell, but maybe it's a good thing after all that Loren's been pretending to be David; most of the Yeerks must pin our softness toward human-Controllers on him._

When we got to the island, I told Cassie and Jake, «Wait here. We can't all fly off in a group. Rachel and I will go first.»

We waited for my mother to beach the boat on the gently sloping gravel and get on her hiking boots. She walked along the sharp crags of the rocky shore, Mercurio swimming along in the cold water beside her, just near the outer limits of their range. Soon, Rachel and I demorphed to human and got wings, heading toward the forest farther along the shore.

Up in the air, we could see what had to be Visser Three's boats coming closer and closer to the island. There were helicopters, and the occasional splash of a Taxxon in the water. Someone leaned out of the window of a helicopter, aimed a Dracon beam at my mother's rented boat, and fired.

«NOOO!» I screamed. The boat burned and twisted and blackened in the bright beam of Dracon fire. Cassie and Jake were in there! _There's no way they could have escaped,_ Dia moaned. _None!_

«We have to call this off!» Rachel cried. «Cassie and Jake, gone – who's going to be next? We can't do this without them!»

«No!» I said. The line was still so clear and bright in my head. I latched onto it, the only sure thing in all the chaos. «No. I'll take Jake's place. We stick with the plan.»

«Are you sure about this?» A deadly, silky calm settled over Rachel that reminded me, painfully, of Jake. «Do you really think we can still do this?»

«Yes,» I said. No guarantees what would happen when I demorphed, but I only had to be human for a moment, and then I would morph, and the panic attack would pass. «Yes, I'm sure.» I had to be. Or everything would fall apart.

 **Jake**

One moment, I was in the exploded wreck of Visser One's boat on the shore of the deserted island, trying to demorph before unconsciousness hit. The next, there was nothing but burning blackness. Then there was nothing. Then my brain fought its way awake, and I found my body half-human, half-smoldering cockroach, and demorphing all on its own, faster and more smoothly than I could have done.

 _How?_ Merl tried to say, but my mouth didn't move.

«It's me,» a voice said. «Merl, it's me, Quincy. I'll get out of your head as soon as you're human, okay? Breathe in, breathe out.»

I found I could control my own breathing. It came in and out in deep rattles. As soon as Merlyse appeared, Arctic fox-formed, she curled up on my chest. It felt weird, touching her while Cassie was still inside my head, but we both needed it too much. I felt pressure inside my ear, then warm slime on my cheek as Cassie crawled out of me. I shuddered and brushed her onto the rocky beach next to me. There was something I was supposed to be doing, but all I could do was just lie there and stroke Merlyse's back until my nerves stopped rattling.

"I'm sorry," I heard Cassie say. I turned toward her. She was sitting cross-legged in the gravel, Quincy sitting on her knee. "You were unconscious – I tried so hard and you wouldn't wake up – and you were so badly burned. Even as a cockroach, I was afraid you were about to… and it was the only thing I could think of."

Of course. It made sense. I was too far gone to demorph, and having Cassie take over my body was the only way to save my life. Just like how Ax needed Tobias in his head for the Chee to be able to do the brain surgery that saved his life. I just wished we'd talked about this first. But whose fault was that? I could have called a meeting about it, but I hadn't. "It's okay," I said. "You can do that with me. If you really have to. We should all… have someone. For that."

"A medical proxy. Like Loren talked about when Ax was sick."

"Something like that."

"You and Loren should acquire Aftran," Cassie said. "So you can do it for the rest of us. If you have to."

I still didn't like the idea of acquiring a Yeerk, even Aftran, much less morphing one. But this was too important. "Okay. I will." Then I sat bolt upright, sending Merlyse tumbling into the air as a moth. "Wait. Where are Marco and Rachel and Visser One? What's going on?"

Cassie shook her head. "I haven't seen them. They must have gotten out before the explosion."

"They didn't wait for us," I said. "Do they know we're okay?"

Cassie clapped her hand over her mouth. "Oh no. They might think we…"

"It's what I would think," I said grimly. "Come on, let's get wings. If I know Marco, he's going to try to carry off the plan without us. We have to go help."

 **Toby**

I felt less anxious, now, with my people at my back. They'd fooled Visser Three's troops and peeled away in the forest to join me. The sad truth was that most of the Hork-Bajir-Controllers, born in Yeerk bondage, had no memory of ever living in a forest. My people knew the world where they were meant to live.

Loren was the point of contact between me and the other Animorphs. I saw the small tan shape of her prairie falcon morph swoop toward me through the trees.

«Cassie and Jake are dead,» she said grimly. «But the plan is going forward. Visser Three's people are here. Rachel and Tobias are guiding Visser One to the right place.»

The right place. Of course. Tobias had explained it to me. The place where Jake was to push Visser One to her death.

"Who takes Jake's place?" I said.

Loren hesitated. «Marco.»

"Are you all _stupid_?" I burst out. "Marco is going to kill his own mother? How can you ask him to do this?"

«We didn't ask,» Loren said miserably. «I begged him not to. I think it's terrible. But he won't back down, and I got outvoted.»

"Fine," I snapped. I knew it wasn't fair to her – it wasn't her idea, after all – but she was the nearest Animorph target. "Come back and let us know when we can be of use."

When Loren was well beyond sight and hearing, I said, "Meret Kar, Ghat Hefrin. I need you two to go to the bluff I showed you earlier. Where the rock is most steep. Hold on to the rock. Stay out of sight. If one of the shape-changers is in trouble at the top of the bluff, go help. If any Hork-Bajir, free or enslaved, fall from the bluff, catch them. Don't let anyone drown down there. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Toby," my soldiers replied, and swung away through the tree branches.

I watched from my vantage point in the treetops as Visser Three's troops moved in to position. Visser One and her honor guard of Animorphs were at their destination, along with Visser Three in some carapaced form. Across a deep inlet among the rocks, the false colony stood among the trees at the top of a cliff. Above me, the sky shimmered, and two ships came into view: Visser Three's famous Blade ship, and an even bigger ship, presumably Visser One's. Their sudden appearance would have seemed magic, like my parents' tales, if I hadn't just seen Delia the Chee do something just as impressive with her holograms, creating a Hork-Bajir colony from nothing.

TSEEEEWWWW! The first Dracon cannon fired from Visser One's ship at the sward of forest where my colony supposedly lived. I watched the holographic doubles of people I knew and loved scream and die in fiery agony. Trees caught and burned for real, true smoke mingling with the false. It was a strange, distant feeling, watching this happen, like seeing my worst nightmares play out on the pages of a book. Everything I'd ever feared might happen was happening, now, and I knew it wasn't real.

Visser One's ship fired down at Visser Three's troops. It was a chaos of screaming. But Ax had taught me enough of tactics that I knew Visser One would have a long shot at winning. I didn't need Loren's cue. It was time to join the fight against Visser Three and pass off my people as Visser One's in the confusion.

 **Marco**

I stood, in goat morph, on a crag where the island's edge folded in and became an inlet. Beside me was a ten-foot drop into deep, rocky, cold water with a nasty current. Any human that dropped down there would be dashed against the rocks into pieces. Mercurio was down there, somewhere, navigating that water as only a penguin could. My mother would be dashed against the rocks into pieces. Dead by drowning, putting the truth to the lie my father and the world believed.

Behind me, a battle raged. Rachel, and Tobias were surrounded by Visser Three's troops, cut off from me, Ax and the free Hork-Bajir fighting to reach them, to keep the heat off me.

Ahead of me was Visser One, her face tinged gray beneath her brown skin. My mother and Mercurio were at the outer limit of their range. I wondered how much Visser One felt the pain of her separation. I wondered whether my mother would feel any relief in the few moments after she hit the water, reunited with Mercurio, before the current dragged her under and filled her lungs with water.

She stared at me. She aimed her Dracon beam at me.

 _It's us or her_ , Dia said. _Whatever we feel, it's us or her. Free or dead, and there's no way to make her free._

I gathered all the leaping power of the mountain goat. I imagined Mercurio waiting for my mother in the water below. As I lunged, I whispered, «I love you.»

"The boy!" Visser One whispered. "It's the boy!" Not my mother's final words, but _hers_.

From seemingly nowhere, a tiger leaped and pinned me to the rock. Visser One tried to fire at us, but an osprey came swooping from the sky to claw red tracks on her face. She cried out, dropped her weapon, staggered back. «Mom!» I cried. I struggled against Jake's iron grip, but there was nothing a goat could do against a tiger. He held me down, and I watched her fall.

Cassie circled overhead. Like a vulture, watching my mother become a corpse. Waiting. _No, that's not fair,_ Dia said. _You can't blame her for this. For taking the kill away from you. Do you think Cassie wanted to do that? To kill her in your place?_

It didn't matter. Dracon was firing from the ships above, Hork-Bajir screamed and slashed at each other, Visser Three swung his monstrous tail, and none of it mattered at all.

«Delia?» Cassie shouted. «Delia, I need you over here RIGHT NOW!»

What was Cassie shouting about? What was so important? Nothing was important.

«Cassie, what's going on?»

«Get Marco out of there, Jake! Get him in dolphin morph, in the water. _Hurry._ »

«Marco?» Jake said. «Marco, stay with me, man. We need to get you back down this mountain. Can you do that? Can you stay with me?»

I didn't say anything. I felt his weight on me lessen, and I got to my feet.

«Loren, go tell everyone to pull out!» Cassie cried.

They cleared a path for me. Animorphs, free Hork-Bajir, and all. We retreated into the woods.

The free Hork-Bajir melted into the forest. Maybe they could blend back in with the Vissers' troops. Maybe they'd have to find another way. It was all beyond me now. I could barely see the shape of Jake right ahead of me, much less the bright, clear line.

We walked for a time that I can't really remember. Then we got to the edge of the woods. The others went ahead, but Jake stopped in front of me. «The other side of the island is here,» he said. «Steeper cliffs. We're demorphing, going dolphin, and jumping down. Let me go human first, okay? I'll be waiting for you.»

He knew. He knew I was going to have a panic attack as soon as I demorphed. He let me do it here, where no one else was watching. He was going to be there when the panic attack hit. I wouldn't be alone.

I focused on my body. The shiny black hair, the long eyelashes, the wide mouth that I got from my mother. The part of her I hadn't lost. I let it take over. And as soon as I was human enough, Diamanta was a gorilla, her arms wrapped around my waist, holding me up.

The last of the goat's horns melted away, and my heart beat its way up my chest, up my throat, into my mouth. It was beating so hard my head was going to explode. My breath was as loud and harsh as a chainsaw. My own breath was going to cut me apart. I covered my face with my hands, trying to keep my breath in, so I wouldn't have to hear it.

Hands closed over mine and gently pried them from my face. Jake. It had to be. He didn't die in the boat. Was it really him? I squinted open my eyes. Yes, it was him, and he didn't even have his serious face on. Just a confused little boy face, like the time he told me about seeing his dad cry. Behind me, Merlyse was a tiny bird on Dia's shoulder, singing a quiet song. "Hey, Marco. There's something important you need to know, but I need you to be calm before I tell you, okay? I need you breathe with me. In." He sucked in air, showing me how, then exhaled. "Out. Do it with me, okay?"

He talked me through deep, slow breaths, just like Luis had taught me to do when I had a panic attack. I finally relaxed against Dia enough that she could let me go. "How did you know?" I croaked. "How to do that?"

"I visited Luis last night, after we split," Jake said.

"I _told_ you I could function," I snarled. "You didn't believe me? Had to check in with Luis to make sure?"

"I had to check in with Luis to ask him what I could do to help if this happened to you again. And I'm glad I did."

I rested my forehead against Dia's thick shoulder. "You gotta admit," she said, taking my hand in her huge one, "he got results."

"All right," I said. "Let's go."

"Wait," said Jake. "There's one more thing. You need to know why Cassie called for Delia. Back up on the mountain."

I remembered it, through a thick fog, even though it couldn't have happened that long ago. I said slowly, "Okay. What happened?"

Merlyse became an eagle, flew up into the canopy, and cried a loud TSEEEEEEER! A minute later, Toby swung down from the trees, and Merl perched back on Dia's shoulder.

"Did you talk to them?" Jake said.

"Yes," Toby said. She gave me a sideways look that made my face harden up.

"Tell us about it," Jake said.

Toby gave me another careful look. "I had two of my people, Meret Kar and Ghat Hefrin, our strongest climbers, on the bluffs where the confrontation was planned. Clinging to the rock wall, far enough down that they wouldn't be seen, ready to catch any Hork-Bajir who might fall. They were to protect my people, but they were also our best chance of saving Hork-Bajir-Controllers, separating them from the fight."

Why was she telling me this? What did she know? With my free hand, I reached out and grabbed Jake's forearm so hard my fingernails dug into his skin.

"I told them why they were here. They knew that Visser One's host was the mother of a shape-changer, and he had come to kill her and Visser Three. They understood, of course. Free or dead. Any of us would do the same, if we had to."

Toby didn't say it with pity. It was just a fact. They would have made the same choice. It was insane that it comforted me, knowing that Salad Shooter aliens from across the galaxy would do the same terrible thing I just did. But somehow, it did.

"But free is better than dead. And family is precious, when you can save it. Meret Kar knows that better than anyone. So when she saw Visser One fall, she caught her. She nearly fell into the water herself to do it – Ghat had to help her keep her grip. And they had to knock the Visser out, of course, to stop her struggling. But they did it. They rescued her."

"This isn't true," I said through numb lips. "You're lying to make me feel better. You think I'm crazy and I'll lose it if I have to face the truth."

"Maybe Jake would lie to you," Toby said. "But I wouldn't. My obligation to him doesn't extend that far, and I think you have a right to know what has happened to your family."

I believed it. Jake wasn't Toby's prince. She had her own mind, and it was made up. Jake moved his hand so he gripped my forearm just like I held onto his. He said, "Cassie told Meret and Ghat to hide her from sight with their bodies, so Visser One's ships wouldn't see, then called for Delia. She shielded them all with holograms, took your mom and Mercurio, and started swimming them back to the mainland. Cassie is with them in dolphin morph."

I shook my head. "That's impossible."

"Dude," said Dia, "We saw Erek swim that first time we saw his android body at the Sharing. And the Chee are fast and strong as hell. It's not impossible. Marco, she's alive!"

I let go of Jake's hand so Dia could pull me into a hug. I cried against her chest. She was alive. No thanks to me. Thanks to the kind, brave Hork-Bajir, who had found a way out that I couldn't, with all my schemes.

"She's injured," Merl said softly. "And she'll have hypothermia from being dragged through all that cold seawater."

"The Chee will take care of her," Dia said. "God, I'll kick their chrome asses myself if they let her die after all this."

I laughed through my tears. Just like I always do. "Okay," I said. "Okay, let's morph dolphin. Let's starve that fucking Yeerk and find out everything it knows. We're gonna save my mom, Jake."


	3. Queen's Gambit Declined

"Queen's Gambit Declined (QGD) is a chess opening when after White plays the Queen's Gambit, Black declines the pawn offered by White. By declining the temporary pawn sacrifice, Black erects a solid position; the pawns on d5 and e6 give Black a foothold in the center. The Queen's Gambit Declined has the reputation as being one of Black's most reliable defenses."

* * *

 **Marco**

Delia had my mother in her basement. The same basement where David was buried. Delia had bought her old house under her new identity as Wena Shih, high school tutor. The price had been rock-bottom, since the Yeerks had wrecked the place looking for a clue where Aftran and her renegade host had gone.

Jake forced me to wait to see her until Delia, Luis, and Safiya had tended her wounds. "You don't want to see her like that, man. Just go home for a while. Take a nap."

I'd been convinced there was no way I could sleep until I lay on my bed over my sheets and woke up hours later, Dia wrapped around my neck as a garter snake, still feeling exhausted down to my bones. I took a shower, said hi to my dad so he knew I was alive, then called Jake. "How's our friend?" I asked him carefully.

"Better. Asleep. Rachel's there, just in case."

I looked at the clock. More than twenty-four hours since Visser One last fed, back in Sutherland Tower. It felt like so much longer since then. "Let's get everyone together and meet there. I want to talk to her."

"Are you sure? All we have to do is wait, and this won't be a problem anymore."

"I'm sure," I said.

"Before we hang up," Dia said into my ear. "Ask him if Toby's people made it out okay."

Dia was right. I had to know. They had saved this stupid plan of mine from total disaster. "Have you talked to Toby? Did she and her friends make it back home?"

"Two of them… didn't make it," Jake said heavily. "Toby and a few others are home free. The rest are still there, waiting for a ride. Delia says her friends can help them get home soon. They'll keep 'til then."

"Good," I said. "Good. I'll, uh. I'll meet you at Delia's."

Dia let herself be warm and fuzzy for a second, a little capuchin monkey, just so I could hold her. Then I called down to my dad that I'd be going out for a while, and hopped on my bike.

When Delia let me in, she said, "Rachel, Tobias, and Ax are here. Your mother's been stitched up. We have her on an IV drip with antibiotics and some warmed-up electrolytes."

I'd been to Delia's basement before. All of us have, I'm sure of it. But I've always come alone, just to sit by David's grave and remind myself he's really dead. My eyes found his grave in the shade of a tree, under the impossible holographic sky. It was a reminder. We'd dealt with fucked up stuff before, and we would do it again.

My mother's sickbed stood in the sunny field, dogs wandering around it, sniffing its wheels. Safiya took my mother's temperature. Rachel stood beside it in elephant morph, Tobias perched on her head, Ax standing by with his tail ready to strike. The whole scene was completely, ridiculously out of place.

And my mother. Wrapped in a cocoon of blankets, her face grayish, stitched-up claw marks on her cheeks. Mercurio stood at the foot of her bed, chin tucked to his chest, asleep. I walked closer and stared at the red, swollen tracks Cassie's talons had left on her face. We morphed away damage like this so often I'd almost forgotten that for most people, this was serious. It would take months to completely heal.

«Hey, Marco. What's the plan?» Rachel said, as if this were just another meeting at Cassie's barn. I loved her for that. Rachel was great at acting like completely crazy things were just something else to take in stride.

Dia became a starling and perched on the edge of the bed, watching Safiya check my mother's pulse and listen to her breathing. I said, "We wake her up and play _Let's Make a Deal._ "

«A deal?» Ax demanded. «With Visser One? For what?»

"Information," I said. "There's all kinds of things she could tell us."

"You're going to offer to spare her life?" Rachel said, sounding pretty grossed out.

"After what we saw with Jake's Yeerk, I think the offer of a quick death might be enough to get her talking."

That made them all shut up. Then Jake and Cassie showed up. She flinched when she saw the stitches on my mom's face. Dia flicked her tail and said, _Good. She_ should _feel guilty. She didn't know the Hork-Bajir would rescue Mom when she sent her over the edge._

 _Neither did we,_ I thought, pointlessly.

Merlyse held up a little black raccoon hand, and Quincy flew down and perched there. I looked away before I could see them get really mushy. Jake stood next to me. "Soon," he said, looking down at my mom.

"Yeah," I said. My heart squeezed. I still couldn't really believe it. I was still waiting for the Yeerks to come crashing in and take her away. Dia flew to my shoulder and nipped at my ear. It wasn't a dream.

"God, I miss her," Jake said. "She's such a cool mom."

I laughed. She _was_ a good mom. Not everyone got that much.

Tobias' head and Ax's stalk eyes focused on a point behind my head. Dia turned around. Loren came toward us, Jaxom's bright black eyes fixed on Dia. I clenched my jaw. I didn't want Loren's contempt or her pity. A dog started sniffing my shoes, so I pet it between the shoulders.

"She's stabilized," Safiya said. "She could still use some sleep, though."

"Thank you, Safiya," Jake said firmly. The Chee gave him a searching look, then left.

I looked around my mother's sickbed. Jake, Cassie, Delia and I were on her right. Ax, Tobias, and Loren were on her left, with Rachel standing at the head of the bed, my mother in easy reach of her trunk. I glanced at Jake. He nodded. It was still my show. Not that I'd earned it. _But it's our mom,_ Dia said fiercely, _and we have the right._

"I need everyone to morph," I said. "Including Ax. And for Delia to go chameleon."

«Why?» Rachel said. «It's not like Visser One's going to live long enough to tattle to the other Yeerks about us.»

I pressed my lips together and didn't tell her that I was still afraid the Yeerks would find us somehow and take my mother away from me. "The less the Visser knows about us, the better. We're trying to drive a bargain. Let's not give her any ammunition."

Cassie sprouted blades from her forehead. Loren's ears pointed, furred over, and crawled up the sides of her head. Whiskers sprouted from either side of Jake's nose. Ax's fur went white like he was frosting over. Delia just disappeared. Dia became a rattlesnake, patterned with black diamonds all down her back. I waited until everyone was in morph, then grabbed Visser One's chin and shook her awake.

She flinched away from my touch and groaned. Mercurio's head snapped up and looked around. Then my mother's eyes opened and immediately focused on me. "The boy," she said hoarsely. "Little Marco."

Dia unfolded her fangs from the roof of her mouth.

"Your mother remembers you crying when a dog died in one of your video games. Now you create clever schemes to capture me. You're not the boy she remembers."

 _This isn't Mom,_ Dia said fiercely, but cold needles prickled all over my body anyway. Visser One thought that her rescue was my idea. Well, I wasn't about to clear things up for her. I said, "I want to speak to her."

Visser One sneered. "How would you know it's really her?"

"I'll know it's really her if you leave her body right now," I said evenly.

"And why would I do that?"

"Let's be clear about your situation," I said, wrapping Dia's tail around my hand. "You're going to starve to death in two days unless you give us a _really_ good reason. What's the worst that could happen if you leave her body? We give you a quick death? I've seen what it's like when a Yeerk starves to death. Seems like an easier way out to me."

"You know what sounds like a better way to me?" Visser One said. "I stay in this body and wait for my people to find me. I have an entire Empire ship at my command. You think you could get me off that island undetected? My lieutenants were watching everything from the sky."

Visser One didn't know about the Chee and her holograms. A sick, hot triumph bubbled up my throat. "Fine," I said. "I'll be back at the same time tomorrow. Maybe you'll reconsider."

I turned and walked away, gesturing for the others to follow me. A hologram shimmered up around us. I could see Delia inside it, in her naked chrome form. "Feel free to demorph. The Visser just sees you walking away. I'm going to give her a sedative."

"Visser One's smart," I said, watching everyone demorph. "Rational. When her people don't show up by this time tomorrow, she'll realize they're not coming. Then we'll have something to talk about."

"Let's put a guard on the house, just in case," Jake said. "Someone keeps watch outside, someone else by her bedside."

"I can stay here until dinnertime," Rachel said.

"Me too," Cassie said. "I'll keep watch."

I looked back over my shoulder. Mercurio was asleep again, head tucked against his chest. I went up the elevator and waited for Loren, Ax, and Tobias to leave ahead of me, avoiding Loren's eyes. Jake said, "What do you want to get from her?"

"Internal Yeerk politics," I said. "We've used that against them before. How many ships they have in orbit. How the war against the Andalites is going. All kinds of things."

"What else?" Jake said.

"I wish I knew why she picked my mom," I admitted. "It has to have something to do with her job. She was in charge of some candidate's campaign. I was too young to really pay attention. But I just… I wish I knew. Why did it have to be her? I guess I don't really need the Visser for that. I just want to talk to my mom, Jake. She has to know so much about the war. She could tell me…"

Jake nodded. "You miss her. Obviously."

"Yeah. Every day."

"Do you want to come over to my house?"

Tom would be there. I didn't think I could handle that. "I really want to just have dinner with my dad. I need something normal."

When we came back the next day, everyone but me coming down the elevator in morph, Visser One had a little wheeled table at her bedside with a glass of water on it. The bed was tilted up behind her back, and she only had one blanket on. She waved at me as I came up to her as if she were on a throne. "Your medical staff here is excellent, Marco. I've been asking your Andalite friend here," she said, waving at Tobias in Hork-Bajir morph stationed at the head of her bed, "how you came by them, but he's been very quiet."

I breathed slowly in and out. "The cavalry still hasn't arrived, Visser One. Are you ready to make a deal?"

Visser One leaned her head back, my mother's glossy hair fanning out across the bed. "Very well, little boy. What do you want?"

I took out a jar of water from under my arm. "I want you to get in here. I need to speak to my mother."

"How sweet. And you'll either kill me quickly or negotiate with me, is that it? Or maybe you'll just let me die slowly after all."

"I guess you'll find out," I said. "You're not really in a good bargaining position."

Visser One pressed her lips together and nodded. I held my hand near her ear. I could feel the warmth of my mother's skin near my fingers. I saw a glistening dark tip emerge from her ear. A wave of nausea passed through me. Dia had to change from a Komodo dragon to a rattlesnake and wrap herself across my mouth like a scarf to keep me from barfing. I closed my eyes and felt the nasty slug fall into my hand. I dropped it in the jar and closed the lid, passing it to Tobias without looking at it. I wiped my hand off on my jeans and made a mental note to wash them as soon as I got home.

 _Open your eyes,_ Dia said. I cracked them open. My mother was struggling to sit up. I reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "Whoa, whoa, easy there, Mom. You're hurt."

"I need Mercurio," she rasped.

"You don't need to get up. He's tall enough that you can touch his head lying down." I stepped back to give him room. He waddled over from the foot of the bed to the side, resting his head on the blanket. Mom reached out and pet him from beak tip to crown. Mercurio made a low cooing noise in his throat. Dia squeezed my arm with her tail. My eyes blurred.

After what felt like a long time, Mom looked up at me. Her eyes were dark and shining. "Marco. You're going to have to let her have me again. She knows who you are now. You'll have to disappear."

I recoiled. "Give you back to that monster? She needs to die, Mom. You need… Dad… he can't lose me! We need you back!"

"I know you do, sweetheart. And, God, I need you more than life itself. But she's the one pushing for a nonviolent invasion. Visser Three wants all-out war! He wants to incinerate cities from orbit, kill and kill till we submit!"

My throat closed up. Dia became a falcon on my shoulder and cried, "We'll never surrender!"

Mom reached out and cupped my cheek. "Marco, that's a nice sentiment, a brave ideal. But the truth is, Marco, humans do submit. Not all, and not always, but some, maybe most. Enough will submit, Marco. Enough to give the Yeerks what they want. And the rest will be dead. Millions. Billions."

Dia's eyes focused on the jar in Tobias' hand. I knew she wanted to tell Tobias to crush it, to make my mother stop saying these terrible things. But she stayed silent.

"You can't rely on slogans, my brave son. You have to _win_ this war. For now, Visser One must survive. Only she can restrain Visser Three. If she loses, or if she's seen as disloyal, he'll have his way."

"Open war would mean humans could fight back, at least," I said, desperate. This wasn't how this was supposed to go. "Better to know the enemy. Know who to shoot."

"Yes, but we may well lose. And even if we win, how many millions or even billions of humans can we sacrifice?"

I closed my eyes, tried to block everything out but the pressure of Dia's claws in my shoulder, and think. I couldn't see the path out of this thick fog we were in. "It doesn't make sense. If open warfare would work, Visser One would support it. So either the Yeerks have reason to believe open warfare would fail, or Visser One has some other reason for going with the slow infiltration thing."

Mom shook her head. "I don't know why. But I know this. Visser Three needs to have a strong, smart political enemy on the inside to check his power. Or he'll use it to destroy everything."

«We may prefer Visser Three to be in charge,» Jake said from behind me. I could feel his hot tiger breath on my shoulder. «He makes stupid mistakes. His people all hate and fear him, which makes his people less effective. And we know what to expect. Visser One might be a more dangerous enemy.»

«Besides,» Tobias said, «Visser One knows Marco now. If she wins over Visser Three and takes back control of Earth, she takes Marco as a host, learns how to get to the rest of us. Then we're all dead. Or worse.»

«Kill Visser One now, kill Visser Three later, when we get the chance,» Rachel said.

«She's your mother, Marco,» Loren said. «You can't give her back to that _thing_.»

Loren's words made me burn with anger. I would have screamed at Loren if my mother weren't right in front of me. Did she think I _wanted_ to do this? Did she think my feelings, or my mom's, came into this? This was war. I couldn't let my feelings matter. Dia looked back at Jake over my shoulder. "What do we do, fearless leader?"

«It's your decision, Marco.» It was just what I knew he would say. «Your mother, your decision.»

Dia became the rattlesnake again, diamond-dappled and gleaming, and wrapped around my chest in a strong embrace. I closed my hand over Mom's on my cheek. I thought about what my dad told me a year ago, that Mom had fought and fought against Visser One's control, and used her precious second of freedom to warn my dad away from the military, keeping him safe in the one way she still could. "You're amazing, Mom," I whispered. "You see everything so clearly. If it were _you_ against Visser Three, I _know_ you'd stop him."

"You know I'd try," she said, eyes burning like hot coals. "If I could."

She couldn't, of course. I felt like I was lost in a dark forest. Everywhere I turned, all I could see was my dad, broken, my mom, lost, the war, lost, the planet destroyed, that horrible vision we got from the Drode when Visser Four messed with time. _I'm not strong enough to let Mom be a slave again,_ I thought hopelessly. _Not even if it's the only way to save the world. How can I do this to her?_

 _If only she had a way to fight back,_ Dia said, _if we could give her some chance…_

I closed my eyes. Dia wandered through the maze of all the grim facts, the impossible choices. And then she saw it, so blindingly clear and beautiful that it made all my stupid plans from before seem like a kid's fantasy. Diamanta saw the web of connections, the one way we might be able to fix this. It blazed like a comet trail in our mind.

All I had to do was enslave my mom. This time, to a different master.

"What if you _could_ , Mom?" Dia whispered. "What if you could go back in and fight against Visser Three yourself?"

Mom smiled sadly. "I can't, _mi amor_. They have Gleet BioFilters everywhere these days. If I don't have a Yeerk in me, they'll know. Not to mention the feeding every three days."

" _A_ Yeerk," I said. "It could be any Yeerk. Couldn't it?"

Everyone's face snapped toward mine. The air shimmered around me, and I saw Delia's chrome dog form to my right. Inside the hologram, Aftran said, "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Mercurio's head lifted from the bed and turned toward me. Mom's eyes widened. Her hand fell away from my face. "Are you saying you have a Yeerk ally?"

Dia rubbed her head against the warm spot on my face where Mom's hand had been. I said, "Have you heard of Aftran 942?"

"The Peace Movement leader?" Eva said. "There was this rumor… that she somehow escaped… oh, my God." Her hand clutched the back of Mercurio's head.

"She's been our ally for months now. I don't like working with Yeerks, but… she's saved our butts. Again and again. And she's never given away our secrets, even though she could have done it about a thousand times."

"Do you trust her?" Mom said.

"I don't know. But I trust that she wants to take the Empire down. And I think she's our best chance." I turned to the spot where I'd seen Delia a moment ago. "Aftran? Can you do this?"

Delia's human form, along with her Chow Chow dæmon, appeared next to me. Mom inhaled sharply in surprise. Aftran said, "This is insane, Marco."

I raised my eyebrows. "I thought you'd like this, Aftran. Think of how much sabotage you could do from that far on the inside."

"It would be one hell of a balancing act. I can't do so much that the rest of the Empire suspects Visser One has turned."

Mom grinned like a shark. "I was an election manager for political campaigns. The best in California. I'm great at balancing acts."

"Yeerks don't all look and act alike, you know," Aftran said. "How am I supposed to pass myself off as Visser One?"

"I know her," Mom said. "Intimately. And you can interrogate her about the rest."

"As for looking like her." I looked over my shoulder at Jake. "What was that little questionnaire we gave Toby before we gave her the morphing power?"

«Are you proposing we give a _Yeerk_ the power to morph?» Ax demanded.

«What do you think she's gonna do, Ax?» Tobias said. «Betray us? It's like Marco said. She could have done it a thousand times by now.»

«Why do you want the morphing power?» Jake said. «That's how we started the questionnaire.»

"I don't want it," Aftran said impatiently. "But damn if Marco isn't right. I _do_ want to take down the Empire from the inside, and I'll morph if that what it takes to do it."

«Then Marco asked how you'd keep it a secret,» Jake said.

"I'm not a fool."

«Then I asked what the dangers are.»

"The danger is getting trapped in morph, or getting caught midmorph. Are we doing this or not?"

Jake took a vote. Everyone voted yes except Ax. "Okay. Yeah. We're doing this."

Mom looked around at us. "Wow."

"We run a tight ship," I said. "How can we cut a deal with Visser One, Mom? What does she want?"

"Besides the enslavement of all humankind? I don't know."

"Are you sure you can do this?"

Mom looked at Aftran. "She's a Yeerk. I'm not going to like it. But if you're willing to trust her with the morphing power… then yes, I can do this."

"Delia," I said, "can any of your people take on Visser One?"

Aftran gave a sharp-edged smile. "Well, there's Erek. He's a bastard, but he could do it, and it's no more than Visser One deserves."

«If you're willing to do it, Delia,» Cassie said, «then Aftran can be with me.»

Delia nodded. She showed a hologram of Aftran coming out of her ear, though I knew that's not how it worked with the Chee, and put her in Cassie's clawed Hork-Bajir hand. Mom watched closely as Cassie lifted Aftran to her own ear and let her slither in.

Tobias handed the jar to Delia. She took Visser One out of the jar and put her in her head. I saw my mom tense. "What is this," Visser One said flatly through Delia's mouth, with the same blank sort of voice Aftran had used when she first partnered up with Delia. "This is not Andalite technology."

"That's not your problem, Visser," I said. "Will you answer our questions or not?"

"You're not letting me out of here alive," Visser One said. "Not with what I've seen of your technology."

"Got it in one."

"Very well. You've won. I accept it. Then give me a swift death, Marco. And do this for me. Protect two human children named Darwin and Madra Gervais."

I stared at Delia. "You want us to protect two human kids? _Why_?"

"Visser Three has a special interest in these children. He may infest or kill them to achieve his ends."

"And again I ask: why the hell do you care, Yeerk?"

In her strange blank voice, Visser One said, "Because they're my children. I had them when I had a different human host. They… must be protected from my enemies."

"You care about them," Mom said. "That's why…" Her voice trailed off.

"That's completely fucked up," I said. "You know that, right? To think your host's kids are yours? Do you think I'm your son or something? No, don't even answer that. We'll protect the kids, Visser One. If you've spent years in my mom's head, then you know I'm good for it."

Delia nodded jerkily. Visser One said, "Ask your questions."

"I'm not asking them," I said. "Aftran 942 has some questions for you."

"Aftran?" Visser One spat. "The traitor?"

"The traitor who _isn't_ about to die," I smirked. "I'd show her some respect if I were you. Into the jar you go."

Visser One went back in the jar. Delia passed it to Cassie, and Aftran went in too. The two Yeerks touched their palps together. I looked away. That was going to be an interesting conversation, I was sure.

«I can't believe you're doing this, Marco,» Rachel said. «Sending her back in as Visser One, with _Aftran_.»

"This isn't just my decision," I said. "She agreed to this. Right, Mom?"

She nodded. Her eyes were fixed on the jar. "Do I get to kill her?"

"Well, yeah. If anyone deserves to do it, it's you."

She looked around at the other Animorphs. "You're all human, aren't you? Or most of you, at least."

I looked at Jake. He said, «It's too late now. You've forced our hand, Marco. If she's captured, she leads the Yeerks to you, and then that's it for the rest of us. Everything, _everything_ , is riding on your mom and Aftran pulling this off. So yeah. We might as well show her who we are.»

I felt the sting from what he'd said. I'd been the first to come down on Tobias for giving us all away to Loren, but I'd done the same thing with my own mom, and her in a much more dangerous position. What I'd done could cost everyone their lives and their families. Could lose the whole war, if we didn't win this desperate gamble with my mother's freedom.

I reached out and held Mom's hand as my friends demorphed around me. She watched wide-eyed. "Only one of you is an Andalite! The young one, the child!"

"The same age as the rest of us. Well, most of the rest of us."

Mom's eyes focused next to me. She clapped her hand over her mouth. " _Jake_ is your leader? Sweet little Jake?"

"Not so little anymore," said Merlyse, who'd just appeared in caiman form, nudging Mercurio with the tip of her snout.

"Christ have mercy, Jake, the entire Council of Thirteen wants your head on a pike," Mom said. She looked around. "Is that your cousin Rachel?"

"Hi, Miss Eva," Abineng said, using the name Jake used to call my mom.

"And you're morphing directly into a hawk," Mom said to Tobias. " _How_?"

«It's a long story, ma'am,» Tobias said. «My name's Tobias.»

«And Elhariel,» his dæmon added.

Mom rubbed her hand over her face. By now everyone was mostly demorphed. She looked up at Cassie. "You look a little familiar. Are you a friend of Jake's?"

Cassie nodded. "My name's Cassie."

Her dæmon piped up from her shoulder. "I'm Quincy."

"Loren and Jaxom," Loren said, gesturing down to her dæmon. "I'm Tobias' mother."

Mom did a double take between Tobias, perched at the head of her bed as a hawk, and Loren. "I… never mind. Nice to meet you. I'm Eva, and this is Mercurio." She craned her neck around to look at Ax. "And the young Andalite?"

He watched her closely with his main eyes. «Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. My brother was Prince Elfangor, who gave the morphing power to these humans. The Animorphs.»

Mom tilted her head back and laughed. The sound made my heart ache. I'd missed that laugh so much. I squeezed her hand. She gave me a sly look. "You came up with that, Marco, didn't you? That sounds like something from one of your comic books."

I grinned. "Yeah. You got me."

Mom gave the group of us a considering look. "Prince Elfangor had an Escafil Device with him. He gave you the morphing power before he died and explained how to use it. And you have the Device itself. Amazing. I would never have thought an Andalite would do such a thing. He must have been desperate."

"He'd been to Earth before," Loren said. "He knew humans. He didn't see them as inferiors."

"Now _that's_ interesting," Mom said slowly. "Definitely nothing the Empire knows about. Even so, it was quite the gamble, giving the power to human children. Clearly one that paid off. You're the greatest thorn in Visser Three's side, you know that? Besides Visser One, of course."

 _And soon, you,_ Dia thought, with a surge of fierce pride.

Jake shook his head. "We always just figured we were holding him off until the Andalites showed up. Though they may end up becoming a whole new problem in themselves, from what we've seen."

Mom laughed harshly. "You're right about that. You're shrewd, Jake. I see that now." She smiled and narrowed her eyes. "Now, when do I get the morphing power? I'm going to need every fighting chance."

«And if you're captured? Then the Yeerks may get access to another morph-capable host,» Ax said.

"She's offering to _enslave_ herself to help us," I snarled. "Giving her the morphing power is the _least_ we can do."

"If I'm captured," Mom said, "then the Yeerks will know about Marco, and that's a much greater loss. With the morphing power, I have a better chance of not getting caught in the first place."

"Show of hands," Jake said.

Mom's face crinkled in a smile. "I _wondered_ why he let you vote on Aftran. It's Jake. Of course he would make it a vote whenever he could."

"That's our Jake," I said, smiling back. I raised my hand.

"Unanimous," Jake said. "Okay, Eva. Welcome to… well, not the Animorphs, exactly. The Animorphs Auxiliaries?"

I groaned. "Oh, come on. We can come up with a better name than that. How about the Guardians of the Galaxy?"

"One day you'll realize that DC is better," Jake said. "But fine. Guardians of the Galaxy."

"It's getting to be a bigger group all the time," Cassie said. "The Chee, the free Hork-Bajir, Aftran, Eva…"

"You didn't kill them?" Mom said.

I smirked and waved at Delia. "You've seen what our friends can do. The free Hork-Bajir are all fine. And now Visser Three thinks they're done for." I squeezed her hand again. I looked up at everyone. "Can I talk to my mom alone for a while, please?"

"Of course," Cassie said softly. "Let's go upstairs, everyone."

They all left, including Delia, and Cassie's jar with Aftran and Visser One in it. We were alone.

"I'm sorry," I told Mom. It just fell out of my mouth. I couldn't stop it.

"Oh, Marco. You wanted to say goodbye to your mother," Mom said. "Who wouldn't?"

"I was going to kill you," I said. "And Visser Three. It was going to be a grand stroke."

Mom stroked my cheek. "That was never going to work, honey. But I'm better off than I was, with this Yeerk of yours. Your Guardian of the Galaxy. If I can stay alive, that would be enough."

I looked at Dia. I expected her to turn into a crow and land on Mercurio's head. But she didn't. Instead, she slithered from my body to Mercurio's, wrapping around him in a long coil.

"Do you remember," Mercurio murmured, "when you used to become a cuttlefish, like Mirazai, and grab onto my head?"

Diamanta laughed. "Yeah. I remember. But I won't do that anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because I think this shape works for me," Dia said. "It feels… like something I'm supposed to be."

Mom and I stared at Dia. Mom said, "But you were just a peregrine falcon a little while ago."

Did flicked her tongue. "That was the last time, I think. Just trying it out, to make sure this is what I really want. And it is."

Mercurio laughed in amazement. "We saw you settle! Oh, Dia. We thought we'd never get to see this. But we _did_. You settled, and I got to see it!"

Mom got out of bed and launched herself at me. "Mom, you're _hurt_!" I gasped.

"I don't care. My boy's all grown up. Oh, Marco, she's so beautiful. Beautiful, deadly, clever, strong. Just like you."

"God," I choked out. "I was so afraid of her becoming a poisonous snake, you know. I was always fine with snakes, but I was afraid what the poison meant. And now you…" I couldn't even finish.

"The poison is how you've learned to survive," Mercurio said, running his beak over Dia's shining back. "It's how you defend yourself against everyone who would destroy you. And you've done it. Diamanta, _querida_ , you've done it."

I curled up with my mom on her bed like a kid coming to his mom's room after a nightmare. She hugged me and kissed my hair and Mercurio and Dia laughed into each other's feathers and scales like we were sharing the best secret in the world.


	4. The Pin

"A pin occurs in classic form when one of your pieces is aimed at the enemy king with some other enemy piece blocking its way. That other enemy piece cannot move, because if it does it will expose its king to attack."

* * *

 **Loren**

When Marco came upstairs to get a snack from Bachu's kitchen, I saw my opening. I took the elevator back down to the strange basement, with its false sky and, impossibly, real trees. Koril was at Eva's bedside, helping her drink soup from a bowl. I stood there awkwardly. Jaxom walked ahead of me and said to Mercurio, "Can we talk?"

"Yes, in a minute," Mercurio said.

I waited for Koril to finish with Eva, then came forward. "Hi. Um, how are you feeling?"

Eva shrugged. "Pretty beat. But I'm trying to keep my strength up. What did you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to talk to you as a mother of an Animorph," I said, twisting my hands around each other. "I know what it's like. To fight for your son who's also putting himself in harm's way."

Eva met my eyes levelly. It was a much more focused stare than I was used to. I remembered how I wasn't even able to choose where to look, when I had been a Controller myself. Maybe this was how she chose to use the power to direct her own eyes: to look exactly at whoever she wanted to, no matter whether it made other people uncomfortable or not. She said, "Do you have any advice for me?"

"Yes. I wanted to say that I don't think you should do this. Go back to the Yeerks. You should stay and fight alongside your son."

Jaxom turned to Mercurio, ears pricked and quivering at attention. He said, "Believe me when I say he needs it more than anything. Tobias has changed for the better since we've started to be there for him. And being here, knowing that we can protect him – it makes all the difference for us, too."

"Just think about it," I finished. "Pray. If you leave him behind… it'll have consequences."

If I had thought Eva's eyes were intense before, they were incandescent now, like flecks of hot ash. Mercurio spread his wings and lifted his head to show off the orange streaks along his cheeks. "I _am_ fighting for my son, Loren. And for yours, too. You don't know what the Yeerks are capable of. They could Dracon beam half this city, build an aboveground Yeerk pool, and load people on freight trains by the hundreds to be infested. It would only take a few weeks. Then they'd start to move on the military, capture their arsenals. Next up, their nuclear stockpiles. That's what Visser Three wants to do, Loren. You think the Animorphs can morph birds and outfly a nuclear blast? I am _fighting for my son_ , and I am giving up my freedom, my family, and maybe my life to do it. You think I don't see what that choice will do to my son? I've already seen it, because Visser One already made that choice for me. So don't presume to tell me what's best for my family, and I won't tell you what's best for yours."

I closed my eyes. It was what I'd expected she'd say. Maybe she was right. I couldn't truly understand her situation. But I knew that Elfangor made the same choice, leaving his family behind so could try and turn the tide of this terrible war, and I knew how that had turned out. "Fine. It's your choice. But in that case, I… I can try to look after him. As much as I can. He has his father, of course. But he doesn't know about the war. So I could be someone who understands."

Eva studied me. Mercurio tilted his head and considered Jaxom. Eva said, "I think you have a long way to go before you understand my son. But I won't turn down the offer. Do what you can, even if it's praying and nothing else. And again: don't presume to know what's best for him."

I nodded. Behind me, I heard the elevator doors open. Jaxom turned around. Bachu and all the other Animorphs were there. And Cassie was holding a gently glowing blue box in her hand.

 **Aftran**

"You knew," I said, my electric fields crackling with disgust. "You knew Yeerks could form partnerships with humans – relationships that weren't based on slavery and conquest – and you threw it away. You brought the Empire here to devour these people."

"The Empire would have come anyway, you soft-hearted fool," said Visser One. "The claim of a Class Five species couldn't go unverified. They would have sent new agents."

"You could have lied. You could have told the Empire that humans were not fit for infestation. They would have recalled you and left this planet alone. And you would have come back with the knowledge that a better way was possible."

"Yes. They would have recalled me. Forced me to abandon my human life and children for a life of eternal mediocrity."

Revelation struck. "You don't care about humans at all, do you? You love having a human host, human children, a human life. But you don't care if all the rest of them are killed or enslaved, as long as you can consume the little slice of humanity you desire."

"And I thought I had become weak," Visser One sneered. "Remember this, Aftran 942: the only ones who will look out for Yeerks are Yeerks. All other beings in this galaxy would destroy us to meet their petty ends. In the end, we're nothing but disgusting parasites to them. If we want anything at all, we have to take it for ourselves."

Another wave of revulsion passed over me. She was right, of course, in some ways. The only non-Yeerks – not counting the miraculous planet of the Iskoort – that truly believed I had value as a person were Bachu and Cassie. Everyone else would see us languish back in our pools on the homeworld, if not exterminate us outright. But I would rather live in a pool for the rest of my days, or even die, than infest another person without consent.

At length, I let my quiet resolve flicker out from me. "And if we do that, then we're exactly the disgusting parasites they think we are." I swam to the top of the jar and tapped my palps against the lid, the signal for Cassie to get me out.

Before Visser One could reply, a warm hand wrapped around me and lifted me away. Soon I found the familiar electrical contacts and leads of Bachu's inner tank all around me. I connected in. I was in Bachu's living room. All of the Animorphs except Loren were there, most of them eating sandwiches and drinking water. Bachu said, _Got everything you need from the Visser?_

 _Almost certainly not, but I got everything I could think of. Here, you have a better memory than me. Can I give you my recollections?_

 _If you must,_ Bachu said. I gave her all of it. Visser One had given me vital information, passwords to Yeerk pool terminals that Eva wouldn't know, and I couldn't afford to forget any of it.

Marco jabbed his thumb toward the jar and said, "You done with her?"

I nodded. Cassie stood up, took the jar with Visser One in it, and put it in her backpack. She also took something out of the backpack: a box glowing with blue light. The Escafil Device. We all stared at it. It was hard not to. It was beautiful, but its hidden power was just as intoxicating. The pinnacle of Andalite technology, and I would be entrusted with it. It was exciting, but at the same time terrifying, because there was one danger I hadn't mentioned to Jake when he asked: the temptation to run away from my existence, to live as something with an easier lot in the galaxy than a Yeerk's. I could not let the morphing power seduce me away from my true goals.

"Let's do this," Cassie said.

When we came out of the elevator, Loren was there, talking to Eva. I wondered what had been about. But when they saw Cassie with the blue box, whatever they had been saying fell by the wayside.

"Are you ready, Eva?" Cassie said. "Aftran?"

We both nodded.

"You'll have to touch the blue box," Cassie said, "and focus your mind on it. So you'll need to leave Bachu, Aftran." The absurdity of it struck me all at once. If I wanted to acquire morphs, I had to somehow touch them with my vulnerable, bare body. But Cassie would have thought of that already. She went on, "I'd also like to ask you a favor. Could you let Loren and Jake acquire you?"

"What do they need Yeerk morphs for?" Marco said.

I bristled. Then Bachu reminded me, _He just entrusted his mother to you._

 _Only because the alternatives were Visser One or open war with the Empire!_ I scoffed. Still. My patience got a bit longer.

"You thought we died in the Dracon fire on Visser One's boat," Cassie told him. "Well, Jake almost did. He fell unconscious mid-morph. I couldn't wake him up, and he had minutes left. So I morphed Yeerk and forced him to demorph. If I hadn't done it, he would have been trapped."

Jake nodded. "Cassie and I agreed that we should all be able to do that if we have to. I know you'll never do it, Ax, so I won't ask you to. But Loren – we should."

"You're right," Loren said. "I saw how Tobias was able to save Ax's life."

 _They could have acquired Visser One without her consent,_ Bachu pointed out, _but they're asking you._

Bachu was right. Jake's brother was a slave of the Empire, and he was still willing to acquire my DNA. He saw how my abilities could be more than just a gross violation. To my surprise, Rachel didn't seem disgusted by Jake and Cassie's suggestion either. Loren and Marco were clearly uneasy, but they didn't object. I didn't even bother checking the Andalite's reaction.

"Yes," I said. "You may."

"Tobias," Jake said. "While we're at it, can Eva and Aftran acquire you? I think that would be the easiest way for them to get wings."

Tobias shrugged his wings. «Sure.» He could hardly object to me, since he'd acquired my DNA in order to invade his own mother's mind, I thought with a sneer.

Then Bachu opened up her head, exposing the inner chamber where I floated. Cassie took me out and placed me on a flat surface: a face of the blue box. When I focused, I felt an odd tingle go through me. Soon, Cassie picked me back up. Had that been all? Did I really have the morphing power now?

I was passed to another hand, pudgy enough to my touch that it had to be Jake's, not Loren's. I fell into a half-doze for a while as he acquired me. Then he passed me into a bonier hand: Loren's. I drifted away again. Next, I felt the rough, tickly texture of feathers under me. I focused on that sensation keenly. There was a pleasing symmetry to acquiring Tobias' DNA when he already had mine, like an account was finally in balance. Then I was passed back to Cassie, and she dropped me back into the jar with Visser One.

For a panicked second all I wanted to do was get out of there. I didn't want to spend one more moment in her presence. But of course I had to acquire her if I was going to impersonate her. So I grabbed at her with my palps and focused my mind. She went slack. When the acquiring trance was over, she said, "What was that?"

"That was what the Andalites call an acquiring trance," I said smugly.

Visser One's fields sparked with shock. "No. No, you're lying."

"Why would I lie to you? I want you to know what the future will be like for us in _my_ vision, the Peace Movement's vision. We'll morph and share bodies and sing new songs. You're a condemned Yeerk. I can tell you whatever I want." I swam to the top of the jar and tapped my palps against the lid. "I imagine you're about to be given to your former host, to do with as she pleases. I wonder if she loves her son as much as you love those children you call 'yours.' She probably does, don't you think?"

"She does," Visser One admitted. "More, even. I know that as well as anyone could."

"Tell a story to the Great Pools in which you die quickly," I suggested. "Maybe you'll weave it true." Then a hand lifted me away.

Reunited with Bachu, I saw Marco pass Eva the jar with Visser One in it. For a moment, I considered turning away. Did I really want to watch Eva exact her revenge on Visser One? The Yeerk was contemptible, but that didn't mean I wanted to be witness to her murder. Finally, I decided to watch. I wanted to get the measure of my partner-to-be.

Eva took Visser One from the jar, anger and despair tightening the lines of her face. She squeezed the Visser in her fist, a futile human instinct. My people flatten ourselves thin as paper to wrap around a brain; we cannot be hurt by crushing. Her dæmon tilted his head up. She touched his face briefly. Then her face twisted in a snarl, and she ran the Visser through on Mercurio's sharp beak.

It was shocking to witness. Yeerks were not supposed to die that way anymore, not since we left the predators of our homeworld behind. I had only ever known Yeerks to die from starvation, breeding, old age, or being trapped inside a dying host. Seeing a Yeerk torn apart like that brought back a brutal bygone era I only knew from old records on Pool terminals. Eva tossed Visser One's pierced, oozing body on the ground, and all I could think was, _This is how my ancestors died. Eaten by Vanarxes and speared by vengeful Gedds._

"Delia," Jake said, with a calm too hard to be natural. "Can you take Eva and Aftran to the Gardens to acquire morphs?"

"Yes," said Bachu. Getting a car was one of her first priorities after she established her new identity.

"What about the rest of us?" said Marco.

Jake turned to Eva. "How are you going to contact Visser One's ship? Do we have to steal a Z-space transponder for you?"

Mercurio glanced at me. Eva said, "Do your allies, your Guardians of the Galaxy, have the clothes I was rescued in? I had a communicator in a zipped pocket."

"Yes," Bachu said, "but everything got soaked."

"Most Yeerk technology is waterproof," Eva said. "It'll still work."

"Seriously?" Marco said.

"She's right," I said. "We live in pools. We make everything waterproof that we possibly can."

"Okay," Jake said. "One more thing before we split. Eva, how will you stay in touch with us?"

"Visser One has – " She flushed with a kind of dark pleasure. " _Had_ encrypted channels. I'll tell the Guardians of the Galaxy about them."

"Okay. Take a break, everyone. I'm going home." Merlyse became an elk, tall and antlered, and walked with Jake to the elevator. Everyone left except Cassie and Marco.

They traded a look. Then their dæmons said, at the same time, "We're coming with you."

Bachu shrugged. "There's room in my car for four. Let's go."

 **Eva**

Walking around in public, uninfested, with my son by my side, should have been a moment of perfect freedom. But the crawling, constant fear made me jump at every shadow. I could almost feel Yeerk eyes watching me.

Marco noticed. "Delia has us covered with a hologram, Mom. You don't have to worry. She made you think Visser One killed the Hork-Bajir, right? She can fool the Yeerks. You're fine." Dear Diamanta, wrapped around Mercurio, gave him a comforting squeeze.

I reached out and gave Marco a sideways hug, my arm around his shoulders. I could still do that; he hadn't grown any taller than me, not yet. It felt so good to be able to just reach out and hug him, like it was normal, like it was easy.

I got less nervous when we went behind the scenes to the access corridors the zoo employees used to feed and clean the animals. "What should we acquire?" I asked Cassie and Marco.

Delia – I still didn't really understand what she was – pointed to a fly buzzing along the wall. "Probably one of those, right?"

"Definitely," said Cassie.

"They're totally gross, but kind of awesome," said Marco.

Before I could blink, Delia had the fly buzzing in her grasp. I hadn't even seen her arm move. Marco whistled. Delia took Aftran from her ear with her other hand and pressed the fly, legs squirming frantically against her grip, into the Yeerk's slimy skin. Mercurio leaned forward and watched with morbid curiosity. The fly went still, as if Aftran had had a contact poison. After a minute, the fly started squirming again. Delia passed the fly to me. I held it in my closed fist and thought about its multifaceted eyes, and Marco's description: _gross, but kind of awesome_.

I only noticed I'd closed my eyes when I opened them again. I let the fly go. That's when Mercurio said, "Oh!"

Aftran was morphing. Even used as I was to watching Visser Three morph into grotesque monsters, this still managed to shock me. Aftran had bug eyes and a proboscis sticking out of her Yeerk body. I watched the slug segment, then blissfully shrink too small to see the disgusting details. When she was done, she fired her wings and buzzed upward in wild spirals. Then she flew straight back down into Delia's hand and demorphed. This time Mercurio and I had the sense to look away.

"She needs a battle morph," Cassie said, "though our options are, uh, limited."

"She needs morphs that don't care about having a slug sitting on them," Marco said. "Good luck with that."

Delia put Aftran back in her head. Mercurio stroked Dia's scales with his beak. Then he looked around and said, "Might I suggest a venomous snake as Aftran's battle morph? If I remember zoos right, the snakes don't move for anything."

 _Just like my lazy son,_ I thought fondly.

Cassie's eyes lit. "Marco's right. A big snake isn't going to care if we put you on it, Aftran, especially if it's fed recently. Let's go to the Reptile House!"

As I'd learned in the car on the way to the Gardens, Cassie's mother was a vet, so we followed her lead to the Reptile House. The service doors to the habitats were labeled with the scientific and common names of the reptiles. Cassie stopped at one labeled " _Crotalus horridus_ / Timber Rattlesnake." Quincy said, "Hey, Diamanta! I think this is the kind of snake you are right now."

Marco looked a little embarrassed. As was my duty as his mother, I ignored it. "Can we see? What do you know about it, Cassie?"

"Some say they're the most dangerous snake in the U.S.," she said. "But my dad says no rattler is dangerous if you pay attention, because they give you plenty of warning. First they just play sleepy or dead to put you off, then if you don't go away they rattle and hiss, and only if you keep bothering them after that, they strike." She looked at Delia. "Still. Maybe you should be the one to pick up the snake, just in case."

Delia nodded. She hunched over the lock and did something to pick it that I couldn't see. I could just barely make out the sleeping snake against the leaf litter on the floor of the exhibit. It did look just like Diamanta, diamond-backed and four feet long. Delia picked it up. Just like Cassie said, it went limp in her grip, pretending to be dead.

"Can it take down a human?" I said, watching the snake's tongue hang slack from its mouth. "A Hork-Bajir?"

"Normally it wouldn't," Cassie said. "They like to pick out the perfect ambush spot, someplace hidden where they know they can get easy prey. But their fangs are long enough to bite through a shoe, they're really fast, and yeah, their venom can kill a human for sure."

I looked at Marco and Dia. They watched me and the snake. Mercurio whispered to Dia, "What do you think?"

Dia blinked slowly. "I… have to say I'm flattered."

I smiled and put my hand on the snake, focusing on all the power and deadly focus it represented. _God made Diamanta this way so she and Marco could destroy our enemies. And now I can be like her, too._

 **Tidwell**

A phone call woke me up at six in the morning. I let myself doze while Illim rolled over and picked up the phone. "Hello?" he said, sounding much less bleary than I would have.

"It's me, Wena Shih." Mokad's host's voice electrified me awake. "I'm on your patio. Meet me outside." Click.

«This sounds serious,» I thought, as Illim threw on a bathrobe and slippers.

«With Mokad, it's always serious,» Illim said grimly. He picked up Kaly's tank and connected it to the exit pipe beside my night table. I watched my dæmon swim into her tank, sealed off the pipe, and stuck my fingers in with her for a quick nibble before I closed the tank and slung it on my back. In the kitchen, Illim poured me a glass of iced tea before shuffling out onto the patio.

Mokad and her host were pacing back and forth along the patio, her false dæmon's ears pricked as if someone suspicious might show up any moment. My stomach churned with worry. Illim sat down and set Kaly's tank at my feet. He took a long swig of iced tea. "What's going on?"

A hologram shimmered up around us. Inside, I could see the bare chrome body of Mokad's bizarre android host. "Illim, I have to go," said Mokad. "My host, Wena, will take over as spymaster for me."

I felt Illim's dismay echo my own. There was no way we could run the Peace Movement without Mokad's help. I opened Kaly's tank and dipped my hand in. She weaved between my spread fingers. Illim said, "You have to go? Why?"

"I have an opportunity to spy on high-ranking Yeerks, full-time. Higher ranking than anyone we've been able to get eyes on so far."

Illim gaped at her. "How?"

Mokad started pacing again. It was a strange motion on those canine legs. "I've turned a host to a high-ranking Yeerk. They've agreed to partner with me. I'm going to replace and impersonate their Yeerk."

Illim closed my hand into a fist inside the tank. "This is a suicide mission, Aftran! You'll never fool them! What are you going to do, use a private pool every time you feed? Someone will see through you!"

Mokad stopped pacing. She stood very still for a long minute. Finally, she said, "I will fool them, Illim. I acquired the Yeerk's DNA. When I feed in the Pool, I'll be in morph."

I jerked so hard I knocked the tank over. Illim immediately grabbed the tank and pulled it upright. Only a quarter of the water had managed to spill out. I rubbed Kaly's scales with a fingertip in apology. Breathing hard, pulse racing, Illim said, "No. No, an Andalite would never give a Yeerk the morphing power. Ever. They tricked you. They made you think they'd given you the power. They're sending you to your death."

"It's not a trick, Illim. The Andalites really do trust me. They're not all what you've been told they are, any more than we Yeerks are what _they_ 've been told we are. Here. I'll prove it to you." Wena's face opened up like a twisted metal flower, with a tangle of wires leading to a small tank in the middle. She reached inside her own face and took a Yeerk out of the tank. Mokad. She placed her on the picnic table next to my iced tea. For a moment I panicked and wondered if she could handle being dropped in the tea, because she was going to dry out and suffocate any minute now. Then she started growing scales.

I yelped and almost tipped over the tank again, but this time Illim steadied it with his other hand. "Oh, _dapsen_ ," he whispered.

Mokad lengthened and grew. And grew. Soon she was as long as the picnic table and started coiling in on herself. Her scales were off-black with pale chevrons pointing toward her head, which opened into a fanged gape. Finally, a pair of golden eyes opened above her mouth.

"What is that?" I squeaked.

«A king cobra,» Mokad said smugly. A voice in my head, like Visser Three's. It made me shudder, though not quite enough to upset Kaly's tank.

"Well, dry me out," Illim said. I felt weak with his disbelief. "Mokad, this changes _everything._ If the Andalites are willing to give the morphing power to Yeerks…"

«They don't know you or your people, Illim,» said the huge snake that was Mokad. «They won't give out the morphing power like humans give party favors.»

Illim stared into Mokad's eyes, hypnotized. "They say the power has a limit. That if you stay in morph for more than two hours, the form stays forever. Our sibling Yeerks, trapped in the Pool, without hosts… so many of them would take this chance. They could be free."

Mokad's hood spread wide. She hissed. «No! They would only take that way out because they don't know there's a better way!»

"You mean the Iskoort," Illim said. "A properly outfitted Pool, integrated with life outside the Pool. Voluntary hosts only."

«Yes.» Mokad's hood retracted. «If they have a real choice, and they choose to live life as something else, fine. But if we offer that now, we offer nothing better than voluntary self-extinction.»

"You're saying that choosing to be trapped this way is the last resort of the desperate," Illim said.

«Yes. I learned that from the Andalites.»

I listened to the conversation and thought about it in the silence. I felt myself saying, before Illim could even read the thought in my mind, "What about us? The Peace Movement hosts?"

I felt both Mokad and Wena watching me, and Illim too, from the inside. "A lot of Peace Movement hosts don't want to be Controllers. They like their Yeerks, even respect them, but that doesn't mean they want to be infested. Living with a Peace Movement Yeerk is the best they can get. If their Yeerks let them go, the Empire would just hunt them down and infest them again. But if they could morph…"

The snake and android stares got even sharper. «Oh, Julián,» said Illim. «You're so right. Why didn't I think of that? I'm sorry.»

«I'm the one who speaks with them while you feed in the Pool,» I said. «You've never met them yourself. I understand.»

«The Andalites may be able to help you with that,» Mokad said. «Wena can arrange the meeting with them. She will be your new liaison with them, as well as your spymaster. I promise she'll do just as good a job as me.»

"Mokad," Illim said. "You don't understand. I can't do this alone."

"You won't," said Wena. "I believe in your cause. Mokad was the one who started this relationship with your Movement. But now that I'm a part of it, I want to stay. I can help."

«It's not the same as working with another Yeerk,» Illim said to me.

«She has to know that,» I said. «But she could have her own kind of knowledge. We don't even know what she is, not really.»

"Will I be able to contact you at all?" Illim asked Mokad.

«Yes. Through Wena. Though there may be some delay before you get a response. I'll only be able to read and send messages when I'm in total privacy, which won't be very often. Of course, I'll send you a message if I discover information that could be vital to the Peace Movement.»

That's when it really hit Illim, what it could mean to have a Peace Movement Yeerk infiltrating the Empire's high ranks. There was so much Mokad could learn. It made him dizzy. "Draw strength, Mokad. Even with the morphing power, this is still terribly dangerous."

«I know.» Mokad demorphed. She shrank from ten feet to a few inches, her scales melted to slime, and her eyes shut into nothingness. Wena picked her up and put her back in the tank inside her head. She said, "Tell me a story, Illim. Do you have any new ones from Firtips the storyteller?"

Illim thought about it. He took a slow sip of iced tea. "They did tell me one last week. It was about a Yeerk from the Eerket Navarr Pool named Arklin. Arklin was spawned during a terrible famine in the Eerket Navarr Pool, and they and their twin were the only surviving grubs of that spawning…"


	5. The Skewer

"A skewer is similar to a pin but with the logic reversed. You attack two pieces in a line, and often one of them is the enemy king; but instead of the king being in back with a piece that is paralyzed in front of it, the king is in front of one of its fellow pieces, and is forced by an attack to step out of the way and allow the piece behind it to be captured."

* * *

 **Eva**

I woke to dawn light on my face. The mysterious basement we were in mimicked the sunrise outside, just as it had darkened when I went to sleep. It felt so good to be able to wake up and open my eyes all on my own. Of course, the stitched-up cuts on my face and arm didn't feel so good. But the feelings, good and bad, were _mine_.

I wasn't alone. Marco sat in a chair by my bed, Dia wrapped around his torso like an imperial sash. "You never get up this early on your own." My voice was still thick with sleep.

"I wanted to have some time to talk before you go," he said. "You'll be gone soon, right? You have to get to the ship before the Visser's three-day mark, and that's this afternoon."

He was right, of course. "You know I'd be here fighting right next to you, if I could." I thought of the DNA swimming through my blood now: Tobias, Edriss, the housefly, the timber rattlesnake, the spotted hyena, the cockroach, the dolphin. I would call on every blessing that Nature could give me if it were the best way to protect my son. But it would be my mind that would help him, in the end, not my teeth or claws.

Marco took my hand and squeezed. "Yeah. I know."

"Thank you," I said. "For finding another way. I never want to be infested again. But going back in with a Yeerk who wants to _end_ the Empire – it's a better chance than anything I could have hoped for. It's just like your friend Cassie said. You found the perfect ambush spot. The best place where I can hide and catch my prey before they know I'm there. I'll be lying in wait at the heart of the Empire, and none of them will suspect a thing."

Diamanta uncoiled a little and stuck her head out toward Mercurio. "Is that really the way you see it? Me?"

Mercurio tilted his head. "Did you think I would disapprove of a snake? Of course I don't. I know you were young when we were taken away from you. But my little diamond, I have always loved you not just for the sweet little dæmon you were, but for all the potential of what you could be. And even the sweetest little dæmon in the world can one day grow fangs, if that is what she needs to become."

I added, "After Delia took me back here, I asked her if she had a computer. I wanted to look up that timber rattlesnake. Delia said she didn't have a computer, but she could tell me about them anyway. She said timber rattlesnakes are some of the most social snakes. They hunt alone in the summer, but they spend the winters hibernating together in one big tangle. They stick with their sisters. They look after their young. They're independent, but they make ties they don't break." I saw Marco flush a little, a pink tone creeping into his brown cheeks. I smiled a little. "Your Guardians of the Galaxy are a strange bunch. How do they make those holograms? How do they know so much?"

Marco smirked. "You won't believe me if I tell you."

"We somehow ended up on opposite sides of the same secret alien war. I'm ready to believe anything at this point."

"They're ancient androids. They've been on Earth since before the pyramids were built."

"No way."

"I told you you wouldn't believe me!"

Mercurio threw his head back and barked a laugh. "We believe you, kid."

"But why don't they fight with you?" I asked. "I would have heard by now if you'd used such advanced holograms in one of your attacks on the Empire."

"They're programmed to be pacifists," Marco said darkly. "They can't fight. They just do… whatever else they can do."

I gaped. "What kind of idiots programmed such powerful robots to be pacifists?"

Dia flicked her tongue. " _Dead_ idiots. That's why the Chee are here on Earth instead of out in space with their creator buddies."

"Huh." I rubbed slow circles on the back of Marco's hand with my thumb.

Mercurio said to Dia, "Have you told your father and Mirazai that you've settled?"

"Yeah," said Dia fondly. "As soon as we told him he went out and bought a cake. It had a frosting snake on it. Before Marco blew out the candle, he recited some poem by Confucius about settling, but he wasn't really sure what it meant, and I don't even understand Chinese anyway."

I laughed, and felt my heart clamp up in my chest. "That sounds like Peter." I reached out and stroked Marco's hair. It had grown past his chin. "How is he, Marco? Is he seeing anyone new?"

Marco's face clenched with pain. "He's been trying to date. I see him go out dressed up all nice, wearing cologne and all that crap."

"Don't be angry with him," I said. "He's trying to build a new life. That's good."

Dia slithered off him, circled around Mercurio's feet, and hissed. Marco said, "But what about you, Mom? He doesn't know you're alive! If he knew…"

My throat burned. When I'd been Visser One's prisoner, I'd daydreamed about being back in Peter's arms, safe and free. But this breath of freedom, however short, had given me some perspective. How could I explain what I felt to Marco? "Marco, I… there's something you have to understand. First of all, I might not survive this. You know that. If it's between getting killed or getting captured, I will find a way to die."

Marco's eyes, both sets of them, brown-black and slit-eyed gold, burned. He nodded.

"But also. Just listen. The last year I spent with you and your father, I was a slave. Visser One controlled everything I did. She was the one who surprised your father with homemade empanadas after work. She's… she's the one who kissed him good morning and goodnight. I… I don't know how I can do that again. Knowing that his most recent memories of me loving him are, for me, memories of loneliness and torture."

Marco closed his eyes. Tears slid silently down his cheeks.

"Oh, _mi niño._ I will always love Peter. This isn't his fault, or yours, or mine. It's Visser One who poisoned it all. I will always love him. But I don't think I can be his wife anymore. Not after the year he spent married to that Yeerk."

I clutched Marco to my chest. I let him cry it out. He needed it. His whole body was shaking by the time he was done. Mercurio stroked Dia's scales with his beak and cooed softly in his throat. I felt terrible, like I had destroyed all his hopes and dreams.

 _You can't get back together with Peter just because it would make Marco happy,_ Mercurio said. _You just can't. I know what's best for you. Do what you must._

When Marco had finally stopped shaking, and sat up, red around the eyes, I cupped his cheek. "Keep loving him, Marco. He deserves it. And you can love so very much, and with _so_ much strength, _mi hijo_. Your love has _fangs._ I won't forget that, when I'm in the lion's den, surrounded by the enemy. I'll remember that, and I'll feel safer for it."

 **Aftran**

At nine in the morning, I heard a rap at my upstairs window. I opened it. An osprey came in and said, «Hi, Aftran. I'm here to take you to the rendezvous point.»

"You skipped school for me?" I said.

«Well, someone had to,» Cassie said. «Don't worry, Lourdes is at school pretending to be me. My grades won't suffer. Anyway. I wanted to say goodbye.» She started to demorph.

Which meant that now was the time to say goodbye to Bachu. I knew this was going to happen, but now that the moment was here, I had no idea what to say.

Bachu said, «My creators would have said that it was the mischief of the _Kolumatiy_ , the spark of fun that unbalanced the universe from deadlock into motion, that brought such as you and I together.»

«And what do you think?» I replied.

«I chose you because I thought our partnership would be the most interesting thing to happen to me in over two thousand years. And I was right. But you are more than just interesting. You are important. And you've made me feel important. Like something more than an observer of a slow planet.»

«I will always keep you with me,» I said. «That is the nature of what a Yeerk is. I am part Gedd, part Hork-Bajir, part human, part Chee. And I think that is exactly what I would like to be.»

There was nothing more to say. Bachu opened herself up, and Cassie took me up and pressed me to her ear. I entered her mind with the joy of homecoming. _Let's fly,_ Cassie thought, and she morphed with such speed and grace it felt like every cell in her body was dancing. Even Quincy's disappearance felt like a choreographed event, a character moving offstage, but not gone.

We flew out the window into the open sky. I could see in Cassie's mind where we were going: an abandoned barn at the southern edge of town. It seemed like a place where a fugitive Controller and her alien allies could have holed up for a couple days.

«There's something I want to show you before you go,» Cassie said. «I'll fly, you relive it.» And she pulled up a memory of a place I had only ever known from Pool terminals and forbidden legends.

Crayak's minion had sent the Animorphs back in time, to my world before the Andalites came. And after. And what had never been, but might have. «Is this real?»

«With Crayak, who knows? The parts that came after Visser Four messed with the timeline definitely didn't happen. But they could have. Crayak was making a bet that we wouldn't be able to fix it, so all of that _would_ happen. So yeah. I think that's what your world was like back then.»

«You could have had that other timeline. You could have let the Andalites destroy my people and avoided the war on Earth.»

«And what would the Andalites do next? They occupied your planet for no reason. They knew Earth was out there. What if they decided to occupy us next?» Cassie circled down toward the abandoned farm. «If you'd told me at the beginning of this war that I'd be more afraid of Andalites than Yeerks by the end, I wouldn't have believed you. But now I think we were just lucky to meet the best the Andalites had to offer.»

I didn't think Elfangor and Aximili were so great as all that, but I wasn't going to convince Cassie otherwise. «So Tobias was the one on whom the timeline turned,» I mused. _He_ was the one who fought the Andalites' genocidal tendencies, even in a world where he was born and raised as one. «Perhaps Illim and Tidwell are right to trust "Noorlin" most of all.»

Cassie flew into the abandoned barn and perched in the rafters. Eva was there, dressed in the same dirty, tattered hiking clothes she'd been rescued in. Her face still had stitched-up talon tracks, and she held her left arm with painful stiffness. Her right hand was on the back of her dæmon's neck. Now that they stood side by side, I could see he was almost as tall as her shoulder. Marco was there, too. Diamanta was wrapped around Mercurio like a belt. He made cooing sounds in his throat and nudged her head playfully with his beak.

«How long until the ship gets here?» Cassie asked Eva.

"Enough time," Eva said grimly. "Let's do this."

Cassie glided to the floor and demorphed. She showed off a bit for Eva, letting her fierce osprey eyes linger on her human face a moment. "She's good," I heard Eva say to Marco.

"Ax says she has the gift," Marco said.

Eva pulled her son into a tight hug. Mercurio nudged his beak under Diamanta so one of her coils wrapped around his head. Cassie looked away. "I guess it's time for us to say goodbye," Quincy whispered.

«Cassie. You changed everything. You showed me that the world was wide enough for both of us. Everything in my life I'm truly proud of, I was able to do because of that. If I don't come back…»

«You have to come back, Aftran,» Cassie said fiercely.

«I won't let them take me alive. That I promise. I won't let them get you. But I can't promise I'll come back. So if I don't. Remember what you did for me. It's your greatest gift.»

Quincy pulled up the memory of the ceremony they did with their parents when he settled. «"Guide me to the hearts of my enemies." That's what we wished for from the bats.»

«I'm about to be surrounded by my enemies. So I'll hold onto the memory of my greatest friend. My partner. Goodbye, Cassie. Goodbye, Quincy.» I disengaged from her brain before I could feel her flood of grief. I had enough of my own.

I was warm in the embrace of Cassie's hand. I was passed to another. Then I felt the tight channel of another human ear around me. I released my flood of painkillers and burrowed in. It felt like entering hostile territory. It had only been a year since I'd been in the mind of a host who didn't want me to be there, but it might as well have been a lifetime.

I felt myself connect to Eva's body, her memories, her feelings, her senses. My instinct was to test out her body, make sure I had full control, but I froze. I didn't want to start out our relationship this way. So I just took in the parts I couldn't help but sense: the pain of her injuries, the fine smoothness of Mercurio's feathers under her palm, the sight of Cassie and Marco watching us carefully, and the upwelling fear and hatred in Eva's mind. I could have used Mercurio's senses, too, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

 _Ahora de nuevo soy caracol_ , she thought disgustedly, imagining herself as a shell around my soft body. Half her thoughts were in Spanish, but from inside her mind, I could understand them.

«Listen, Eva,» I said. «I don't want to be your slavemaster. I want to be your ally.»

«An ally?» Eva sneered. «Like equals? You can read my every thought, and I don't know the first thing about you.»

«Then I'll tell you,» I said. I opened up our connection so she could feel what I felt.

«You're going to miss Cassie,» Eva said, amazed. «You love her, in whatever way Yeerks can love people.»

I chose not to take that personally. If insulting me made her feel better about this situation, let her. «You might want to tell Marco you're okay.»

«You're not going to do it?» Eva mocked.

«Not unless you want me to. Not now, not ever.»

She didn't believe me. I didn't expect her to. My words meant less than nothing. I would have to prove myself through action. Eva said, "I'm all right."

Dia flicked her tongue against Mercurio's face. I saw it, through Eva's eyes, but I didn't let myself feel it through his skin. Her black-slitted gold eyes bored into Mercurio's. "Aftran. If you get out of this alive and my mom tells me you didn't respect her…" She unfolded her fangs from the roof of her mouth and rattled.

Cassie looked at Eva and said, "Try and learn to trust her, Eva. I did, and it was more than worth it."

I could feel Eva shutting off parts of herself, or trying. "You two need to leave. There's a Bug fighter coming to take me to the Empire ship."

Marco nodded. Dia uncoiled from Mercurio. Cassie and Marco started to morph osprey, Cassie more elegantly than Marco, as always. Neither of them said anything, knowing that nothing they told one of us would be private from the other. Eva watched them go, until it was only us in the abandoned barn.

I expected Eva to feel exposed, vulnerable, helpless with me in her brain. Instead, the feeling that overwhelmed her was a terrible abyss of loneliness. Eva loved people. She loved sharing herself with them. Now the only person in the world she had left to share herself with was me. It was like being locked in a room with me for who knew how long. These two days of freedom were her first time interacting freely with other people in three years. Now she might never get the chance again. It reminded me of when I realized I could never go back to the Yeerk pool again, never live among my people. But it was even worse, because I at least had Bachu, Cassie, and Illim to talk to.

«Hold on a moment,» I said. «I need to try something.» I'd tested it already with Bachu, but I needed to try it with Eva. I thought back to the moment I'd grabbed Visser One with my palps and acquired her. I had no idea if this was going to work while I was in Eva's brain, but one way or the other, I had to know.

I felt the change come over me. Just as it had happened with Bachu, I lost the connection to Eva's brain for a moment. Then it came back online. «What the hell was that?» Eva demanded.

«I morphed Visser One. I needed to know if I could do that while I'm connected to you.»

«You need to tell me these things first!» Eva seethed. «You want to be my ally? Okay, fine. But you'll have to accept that I'm in charge of this operation. I may not be a Yeerk, but I _know_ Visser One. I know how the Empire operates at its highest echelons. Do you know anything about that?»

«Uh… no.»

«Didn't think so. Both of us are in this together, whether we like it or not, but I'm the one who's going to make or break this little act of ours. So if you get a bright idea like morphing inside my skull, or, I don't know, twitching my left eyebrow when I'm trying to keep a straight face, you run it by me first, because that is the only chance we have of getting out of this alive. _Got it_?»

Never before had I been intimidated by my own host. I realized that I was going to have to get used to that feeling. It was an act of bravado, I knew, because ultimately I was the one with the power when I was in her head. But at the same time, I could feel her cold certainty that we would both die, or worse, if I didn't take her seriously. So I said, «Yes, ma'am.»

«Good.» There was a whoosh of strangely-scented air that came through the open barn door. «That'll be the Bug fighter. Let's go.»

She stepped outside, Mercurio beside her. There was, in fact, a Bug fighter waiting. A hulking Hork-Bajir-Controller with a blue armband on her bicep stood outside the entrance. "Visser," she said neutrally.

That cold certainty settled deeper in Eva. "Sub-Visser Twenty-Nine." She stepped past her into the Bug fighter.

The Sub-Visser followed. "We thought for certain you were dead."

Eva had clearly prepared for this. She raised an eyebrow. "Do you think I am without allies among Visser Three's people? My agents among his troops staged a discreet rescue mission." She waved toward the unoccupied co-pilot's chair next to the Taxxon at the ship's controls. "Hurry up. I need to feed."

Sub-Visser Twenty-Nine sat. But before she turned to the console, she said, "Will you do me the honor of letting me feed with you, Visser?"

"Why, Sub-Visser, I thought you were tef-rane, not esh-rane," Eva said. I was immediately impressed. Spacer Yeerks counted days in three-day cycles called rane instead of weeks. Tef-rane and esh-rane referred to different days in a cycle when a Yeerk fed. Eva remembered which day of the rane it was now, and that this Sub-Visser was tef-rane.

"You will understand my need for reasonable precautions, Visser." The sub-visser turned to the console, and she and her Taxxon co-pilot punched up a flight trajectory back to Visser One's Empire ship.

«Unlike Visser Three, Visser One encourages – _encouraged_ – initiative in her underlings,» Eva thought. «Sub-Visser Twenty-nine wants to check and make sure Visser One wasn't replaced by an agent of Visser Three's. So we'll let her meet you.»

«All right,» I said. «Tell me what to do.»

Mercurio said to Eva, «She's learning. That's good.»

Outwardly, Eva stayed impassive, the image of the warlord silently judging her underlings. Inwardly, she said, «Here's what to say to Sub-Visser Twenty-Nine when you first enter the pool with her…»

 **Marco**

On our walk home from school, I said to Jake, "I'm gonna go visit Toby and her friends. Wanna come with me?"

Jake nodded. "Sure. Let me just stop by my house first and drop off my stuff." Not that he could complain about carrying his stuff. Merlyse was reindeer-shaped and carrying his backpack for him.

We split to our separate houses. I told my dad I was going out with Jake to celebrate Dia's settling – which was maybe a little bit true. Then I went out to the trees behind my house and morphed osprey. I just started flying toward the mountains, trusting that Jake would catch me up, and soon enough, he did. He didn't ask why I was going to the valley. He didn't have to. Merlyse hadn't mentioned anything about Dia settling either, but she knew my dæmon. The only thing we had left to talk about was what we always have to talk about: comic books, _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ , the substitute teacher we had in math that day.

The Hork-Bajir noticed us as soon as we flew into the valley. They always do. They really know their stuff when it comes to _hrala_ , the particles of consciousness, so we don't look anything like real birds to them.

Toby's head popped up from the tree canopy. She waved to us. "Is that Jake and Cassie?"

«No, it's me, Marco. I wanted to, uh. To thank your people who saved my mom.»

I'm no expert on Hork-Bajir expressions, but Toby's head snapped back like she was surprised. I was a little annoyed. Was it really that surprising that I'd want to come say thanks? "Oh! Oh, okay. Sure, I'll go get them. And, uh, congratulations, Marco." She disappeared back into the trees.

Jake and I flew down into a clearing and demorphed. «Do you know what that was about?» I asked him.

«Huh. Not sure,» said Jake.

Some Hork-Bajir showed up to watch us demorph. A lot of them are grossed out by morphing, like most sane beings are, but some of them, who I was pretty sure I recognized from going on missions together, were more used to it. As we demorphed, I heard them say to each other, " _Hralathu_." I was pretty sure I'd never heard that word before.

Merlyse appeared on Jake's wrist as some kind of brown slimy thing. "What _are_ you?" Dia asked her.

"A Siberian salamander," she said.

"There are salamanders in _Siberia_?" Dia said. "You already turn into a Siberian tiger. Don't you think you might be a bit obsessed?"

Before Merl could answer, Toby showed up with two tough-looking Hork-Bajir. They looked a little familiar. "Marco," Toby said, nodding toward me with her long snake neck, "this is Ghat Hefrin – " she gestured to a shorter, broader Hork-Bajir with bright green eyes – "and Meret Kar." The other had lots of scars and dull bronze eyes.

"Marco," said Ghat Hefrin. "You are _hralathu_. When happen?"

"She means you have more _hrala_ around you now," Toby explained. "You're fully grown. Settled, you humans would say."

"Oh," said Dia, coiling around my neck.

"That was yesterday," I said. "I was with my mom when it happened. So, uh, thanks for that. I…" My voice broke. I ducked my head and finished lamely, "That was amazing of you. Seriously."

"How is Marco-mother?" said Ghat. "Good? Safe?"

My throat seized up. I shook my head. "No. She… she had to go fight the Yeerks. It's really dangerous."

"Meret and Ghat once slaves to Yeerks," said Meret Kar. "Now free. Now go back, fight, free more."

"When Ghat free more Hork-Bajir," said Ghat, "forget slave-Ghat. Remember free-Ghat."

"Meret free Marco-mother, like Meret free Meret-sister Elgat."

Jake and I looked at each other. We were both smiling. Merlyse became a reindeer, and Dia slipped from my shoulder onto her neck. I turned back to Meret and Ghat. I tried to think of what to say. The Hork-Bajir weren't gentle clowns or naïve fools, like I'd thought. They had families, and feelings, and pain, just like the rest of us. They just really had their priorities straight. I wished I could be more like them. But all I could really say out loud was, "You guys are awesome."

Ghat said, "Marco-mother do _hralathu-ka_?"

Toby translated, "She means a ceremony. To celebrate your settling."

I shook my head. "Not really. She was hurt – not you guys' fault – so we just kinda stayed in bed and talked until she fell asleep."

Meret thumped her chest. "We do _hralathu-ka_ for Marco!"

Ghat joined in. " _Hralathu-ka_!"

Soon it turned into a chorus. There were Hork-Bajir jumping through the trees all around us. Dia and Merl shared a look. I asked Toby, "So, uh, what exactly is a Hork-Bajir settling party like?"

"Well, we normally do it in the trees. But everyone here knows you can't really climb as humans. We find a spot with really nice _hrala_ flow, everyone brings water and bark to the new _hralathu_ , and we make music."

"What's Hork-Bajir music like?" Dia said in Merl's ear.

"How should I know?" Merl said.

"That sounds okay, I guess," I said. "Though you can tell them I don't want any bark."

Toby opened her mouth in a toothy Hork-Bajir grin. "Tobias and Ax found some wild blackberries by one of our streams. I'll make sure you get some of those." She climbed up a tree and called back and forth with some of her people. Then she climbed back down and said, "This way."

We followed her to the northern end of the valley, where a little waterfall came down into a fast-flowing stream. There were already Hork-Bajir waiting there. Meret passed me a roughly carved wooden bowl with some water in it. I drank a careful sip. It was cold and clear and delicious. "Thanks," I said, and drank some more.

Ghat came with a bunch more Hork-Bajir (how many were there in the valley these days?) and gave me a curved piece of bark with a pile of little blackberries in it. I passed Jake the water and took it. She grinned. I smiled back – how could I not? – and tried some. They were more sour than I was used to, but still pretty good. I gave Ghat a thumbs up, then remembered she might not know what that meant. But she gave me a thumbs up right back. Tobias and Ax must have taught her a few things.

I looked around and realized that some Hork-Bajir were clinging to the rocks by the waterfall, and there were more in the trees behind me. The air felt different. It took me a minute to realize why. The Hork-Bajir high up were humming deep in their throats. The sound spread downward and layered on itself. Up in the trees, I started to hear drumming. A throbbing, syncopated beat, like in Latin music, with some crazy riffs in there like a drum solo in a rock song. The Hork-Bajir around us who weren't humming made deep rhythmic sounds, thrusting their heads back and forth and thumping their tails.

Dia said to Merl, "This is the best beatboxing I've _ever heard_." Jake and I giggled and passed the blackberries back and forth.

The Hork-Bajir kids were the first to start dancing. It was kind of hard not to. I'd already been bobbing my head and tapping my foot to all the sick beats. The Hork-Bajir started jumping through the trees in all kinds of patterns. I saw Jara and Ket pass by, whirling each other around – Jara flashed me a goblin smile.

Dia stretched her head out toward Jake and said, "I dare you to dance."

"Hey, you're the _hralathu_ ," said Merl. "Shouldn't you go first?"

"Uh uh," I said, folding my arms. "No _hralathu_ dancing unless you start it. Think of all the fun I won't get to have if you don't dance, Jake. It would be a _tragedy_."

Jake tilted his head up toward the sky. "Just for the record, I will kill you if you tell any of the others about this."

"Oh, but Cassie would be so thrilled to hear you can actually dance!" I crowed.

Jake was an _adorable_ shade of red. "I will _especially_ kill you if you tell Cassie!"

I shoved Jake toward the circle of dancing Hork-Bajir. Merl turned into a lynx and followed him. Jake looked around, shrugged, then he and Merl started jumping around like they were in a mosh pit. Ket Halpak saw him and gave him a thumbs up. Dia hissed a laugh and started wobbling around like she was getting serenaded by a snake charmer. Then she looked back at me. _Come on,_ she said silently. _If Mom were here, she'd be beatboxing and Mercurio would be doing a stupid penguin salsa and making fun of you for just standing there like a goober._

Diamanta was right, of course. If an emperor penguin dæmon could dance, then so could I. I tossed the last handful of blackberries in my mouth, then went out to teach Jake and those Hork-Bajir some _real_ dance moves.

* * *

 _mi hijo_ = my son

 _Ahora de nuevo soy caracol_ = Now I'm a snail again

The term "rane" for the three-day feeding cycle is borrowed with love from the wonderful fic 167 Rane of Aniss by Ember Nickel.


End file.
